TheCable

The International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has denied making comments on the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The commission said its name was used to say the authorities in Kenya — the country where Kanu was reportedly rearrested — did not violate the rights of Kanu.

He was rearrested in June. TheCable had reported how Kanu was lured and then arrested.

The IPOB leader, who is facing charges bordering on treasonable felony following his campaign for the secession of Republic of Biafra, had jumped bail in 2017 after a military action, code-named “Operation Python Dance”, targeted his family house in Abia state.

In a statement on Thursday, Friday Sani, IHRC ambassador for West Africa, said the commission does not “take sides” but prefers to use mediation to resolve issues.

“As a diplomatic inter-governmental organisation, our policy on crisis management is purely a mediation role to bring about peace and not to take sides with any party and aggravate crises,” Sani said.

“The issue of IPOB agitation and the subsequent violence that has ensued has claimed several lives in south-eastern Nigeria and as a diplomatic specialised organisation with full knowledge of public security and public safety we do not issue such myopic and premature statements which are capable of escalating the crises on ground in Nigeria.

“For the record, we are about the only non-governmental organisation in the world who do not believe in protest or demonstration as a way of making demands from government or bodies owing to our diplomatic principles.

“Let me also put it on record that the IHRC establishment across the world is to bridge the gap of bureaucratic bottlenecks created by various state protocols which has hindered the acceleration of the Universal Declaration on human rights by the United Nations in 1948.

“The public should therefore disregard the purported publications and maintain their confidence in our capacity to ensure compliance with the universal declaration on human rights.”