TheCable

The United Kingdom has denied any knowledge of a request from Nigeria to shut down Radio Biafra.

The radio station, established by the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), is based in the UK and run by Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, had said the federal government approached the British government to shut down the radio but received an unfavourable response.

“Who does not know that the IPOB internal radio is located in London? We know the diplomatic moves we have been taking and approaching the UK, all the damages it (Radio Biafra) has done, but they don’t see it that way, for them (the British government), it is about freedom of expression,” he had said.

Reacting, Joe Abuku, spokesman of the British high commission, said if the UK had received such a request, it would have considered it carefully.

“The UK is not aware of any representation from the Nigerian government about Radio Biafra,” he said in a statement.

“Were we to receive any such request, we would, of course, consider it carefully on the basis of the available evidence, recognising that freedom of speech and expression carries responsibilities.”

France had earlier denied Mohammed’s allegation that IPOB’s financial headquarters is based in its country.

“We don’t have any knowledge of a particular presence of IPOB in France and the Nigerian authorities never got in touch with the embassy on this point,” the French embassy had said in a statement.