The family of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has condemned the Embassy of Switzerland in Abuja for allegedly denying travelling visa to members of the family invited by the United Nations to the 116th United Nations Human Rights Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.
According to Prince Emmanuel Kanu, Nnamdi Kanu’s younger brother, the family members were invited by UN as key witnesses of the alleged mass murder committed by the Nigerian security operatives when the family compound was invaded on September 14, 2017, during the Operation Python Dance ll conducted by the Nigerian Army.
Emmanuel Kanu said apart from the family members, “key IPOB members who witnessed the genocide at Afaraukwu were also denied visas.” He accused the Embassy of “conspiracy, collusion and unholy dealings with Abuja to frustrate the family and help the Nigerian state escape punishment.”
Kanu further disclosed that some Amazonians fleeing persecutions in the Camerouns were equally denied visa by the Swiss Embassy, alleging that it was a clear indication that the Embassy was colluding with “oppressive administrations to suppress freedom fighters.”
He lamented what he called bad faith of the Swiss Embassy in constituting itself to an impediment to the family’s bid to get justice over the unprovoked invasion of the family house and the disappearance of their beloved ones including his parents, Eze Israel Kanu, the traditional ruler of Afaraukwu community and his wife, Lolo Sally Kanu.
“Some of our family members who were invited by the United Nations could not understand why they should be denied visas. Some Amazonians who fled Cameroon to Nigeria who were also invited to the United Nations by this same working group were also denied visas.
“The reason for the invitation is to state categorically as eye witnesses, to the United Nations, what happened on the 14th of September 2017, when the Nigerian Army illegally invaded the home of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the IPOB leader.
“For the fact that you house the world body does not give you the right to deny victims and key eyewitnesses of torture and genocide visas even when the same world body invited them,” Kanu lamented.
He therefore appealed to the UN as well as the United States of America and other human rights promoting nations to prevail on the Swiss Government to change their decision and issue visas to the invitees so that the UN could get first hand information from them.