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A coalition of United States-based pro-Biafra activists have declared that the jailed chief of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, did not commit any crime by demanding a referendum on the Biafra query in Nigeria.
This is because the activists requested the Nigerian authorities to study from the self-determination push within the United Kingdom which has led to calls for for referendum by the individuals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The activists spoke in a joint assertion issued by the American Veterans of Igbo Descent, AVID, Rising Sun and Ambassadors for Self-Determination, signed by Dr Sylvester Onyia, Mazi Evans Nwankwo and Rev. Dede Maxwell.
In the joint assertion titled ‘Nigeria should study from the UK: Referendum is a democratic proper, not a crime – our stand on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’, the activists famous that no one has been arrested and charged with treason within the UK for championing a referendum.
“We have watched with chilly fury the latest occasions within the United Kingdom, the very nation that imposed its parliamentary system on Nigeria after which deserted each precept it claimed to show us.
“On 14th September 2026 in Cardiff, the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland signed a joint accord declaring their inalienable proper to self-determination. On twenty second September 2026 the Scottish Parliament voted 84–18 that “Scotland is a nation that has a right to decide its own future.” Even a tiny English village, Piddington in Oxfordshire, held a referendum to resolve its personal destiny.
“In each single certainly one of these circumstances the British Government did not drag anybody to court docket for treason neither had been individuals shot useless. The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, debated them. No one was kidnapped. No one was thrown right into a dungeon and left to rot. No one’s well being was intentionally allowed to break down in custody. That is what democracy appears like when the highly effective are compelled to respect it,” the activists acknowledged.
Stating their place, the activists confused: “If the United Kingdom can enable open debate and parliamentary votes on self-determination in 2026, by what twisted logic does Nigeria criminalise the identical demand? We demand the instant inclusion of referendum as a constitutional proper. When a individuals stand by their very own candidates and vote in keeping with their collective will, that’s already a type of referendum.”
According to them, it’s the legit expression of a individuals’s proper to be ruled by these they belief and not by those that occupy them
Also stating their place on Nnamdi Kanu, the activists condemned what they described because the deliberate neglect of the IPOB chief’s well being in detention. They stated the event is not merely inhumane however a calculated act of cruelty.
“Let or not it’s acknowledged for the world to listen to with out apology: Mazi Nnamdi Kanu asking for a referendum is not a crime. In Scotland it’s referred to as democracy. In Wales it’s referred to as self-determination. In Northern Ireland it’s protected by the Good Friday Agreement. In Nigeria it’s branded terrorism so {that a} British citizen might be silenced.”
The activists additionally faulted the British authorities’s silence on Nnamdi Kanu’s case, particularly the delay in listening to the enchantment he filed to problem his conviction.
“Britain has deserted essentially the most fundamental tenet of the widespread legislation it compelled upon Nigeria: justice delayed is justice denied. Why has Britain not demanded an evidence from Nigeria for refusing to listen to the enchantment towards a conviction that rests on no clear written legislation? Britain’s calculated silence and deliberate docility quantity to lively complicity within the extraordinary rendition and unlawful conviction of its personal citizen,” the activists acknowledged whereas accusing the British of betrayal.
They added that Kanu referred to as for a referendum as a result of he envisioned a Nigeria of justice, fairness and true federalism — or the liberty to stroll away if that Nigeria proved unattainable.
They demanded the instant medical evacuation and therapy of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, full respect for his basic human rights, “and the unconditional finish of his unjust detention for demanding exactly what Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are freely demanding within the United Kingdom right now”.
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