By CHARLES IWUOHA

The American Veterans of Igbo Descent (AVID), an association of retired and serving United States military personnel of Igbo origin, has accused the United Kingdom of enabling the 'persecution' of its citizen, Nnamdi Kanu, by the Nigerian Government.

Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), holds a British passport.

In a statement signed by its President, Dr. Sylvester Onyia, on Monday, AVID insisted that Kanu cannot be tried and convicted with a non-existent law.

Kanu and his defence team have been arguing that the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act 2013, under which he was charged, had been repealed by the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition Act) 2022.

In the statement titled 'A dead charge cannot kill a living man', AVID accused the UK of keeping silent in the face of glaring injustice meted on Kanu by the Nigerian authorities.

Stressing that the United Kingdom cannot pretend not to know about the unlawful nature of the trial, AVID said the UK government's silence on the matter amounted to active complicity.

The statement said: "The United Kingdom cannot pretend not to know. And its silence has crossed the line into active complicity. The United Kingdom ? the country whose citizen is being subjected to this legal monstrosity ? is fully aware of what is happening in Nigeria. Yet it has chosen silence, indifference, and diplomatic paralysis.

"This silence is not neutral. It is not passive. It is not merely irresponsible. It has now become complicity. Because it was the United Kingdom itself ? not Nigeria, not the United States, not the EU ? that originated the very rule now being violated daily against its own citizen.

"Over 300 years ago, the UK ? through Lord Camden in Entick v. Carrington (1765) 19 Howell?s State Trials 1029 at 1066 ? laid down the foundational principle: ?If it is law, it will be found in our books. If it is not to be found there, it is not law." This remains the purest statement of the doctrine: Nullum crimen sine lege ? no written law, no crime; no valid law, no valid charge.

"William Blackstone, the most cited legal authority in the English-speaking world, reinforced it in his Commentaries on the Laws of England (1769), Vol. I, at p. 44: ?No man is to be punished but for a clear and certain breach of the law.? A.V. Dicey ? the father of the modern rule of law ? made it even more emphatic in The Law of the Constitution (1885), pp. 188?189: Where there is no law, there is no offence; where there is no offence, there can be no punishment.

"And in the 21st century, the UK?s most respected modern jurist, Lord Bingham, reaffirmed the same rule in The Rule of Law (2010), p. 41: ?The criminal law must be accessible and so far as possible intelligible, clear and predictable."

AVID warned that history will not forget the role played by the UK, with its active complicity of silence, in Nnamdi Kanu's persecution.

The statement added that the European Court of Human Rights ? which the UK helped establish ? distilled the centuries-old British doctrine in Kokkinakis v. Greece (1993) 17 EHRR 397, holding that: "An offence must be clearly defined in law."

"This is the exact principle Nigeria is violating. And the UK ? the global architect of the principle, the very nation that exported it to its colonies, its Commonwealth, and to international human-rights law ? is now looking away while its own citizen is prosecuted on a non-existent count struck out by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and six counts under a repealed law that has not existed since 12 May 2022.

The UK knows this. The UK understands this. The UK authored this doctrine. Yet the UK says nothing. This silence is no longer ignorance. It is no longer negligence. It is an endorsement ? a diplomatic green light for persecution.

"The United Kingdom is enabling the persecution of its own citizen. By refusing to speak, intervene, or even acknowledge the absurdity of prosecuting a British citizen on a dead, repealed, and judicially buried charge, the UK has abandoned its own legal heritage, abandoned its own citizen, abandoned the rule of law it once championed. A government that will not defend the most basic legal right of its own national ? the right not to be prosecuted under a repealed law ? is not merely failing in duty. It is encouraging the persecutor. By silence. By acquiescence. By tacit consent. By diplomatic nonchalance. This is the United Kingdom?s shame ? and history will record it," AVID stated.

Justice James Omotosho has fixed November 20 to deliver judgment in Kanu's trial.

However, speaking ahead of the verdict, AVID argued that the case had been dead for years and should not have gotten to the stage of judgment.

The statement added, "On 20 November 2025, Justice James Omotosho will attempt to deliver judgment in a criminal case that has been legally dead for years. Count 7 before him is the identical twin of the old Count 15 that the Supreme Court of Nigeria, on 15 December 2023, examined and declared: "The offence as laid does not exist in the body of our laws ? Count 15 is incompetent and is hereby struck out.?

"The prosecution never amended it.

They never re-framed it under the correct law (CEMA) as the Supreme Court expressly directed. Justice Omotosho never ordered them to obey the apex court. Instead, they simply renumbered the corpse and, on 29 March 2025, forced Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to take a fresh plea to a count that the highest court in the land had already buried.

"The other six counts are laid under the Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2011 as amended in 2013 ? a statute that the National Assembly repealed and replaced on 12 May 2022, three years before the fresh arraignment."

AVID restated Kanu and his defence team's argument that "no court in Nigeria in 2025 has jurisdiction to try any citizen, under any circumstances, on the strength of a repealed law or a count the Supreme Court has declared non-existent".

This is not a trial. This is a constitutional abomination dressed in judicial robes. Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution is not a suggestion. A repealed law is not ?in force". A count declared ?non-existent? by the Supreme Court is not a charge. A man detained for years on such a charge is a hostage, not an accused person," the statement said.

The association of retired and serving United States military personnel of Igbo origin asked the court to strike out the case against Kanu in its verdict on November 20.

"We, American Veterans of Igbo Descent ? men and women who have fought and bled for constitutional democracy ? state plainly: There is no valid charge before Justice Omotosho.

There is therefore no lawful basis for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu?s continued detention.

"We demand that on 20 November 2025, Justice Omotosho does the only thing the Constitution and the Supreme Court of Nigeria permit - strike out the entire charge and order the immediate, unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Anything less is not justice. It is judicial rebellion against the Constitution. It is contempt of the Supreme Court. And it is persecution aided and abetted by the silence of the United Kingdom. The world is watching. History is recording," the statement further declared.

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