A Nigerian asylum seeker said to be near death from a hunger strike failed in his bid on Thursday to be freed from a British detention centre. Isa Muazu, 45, from the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, came to Britain in 2007 and claimed asylum saying that the Islamist group Boko Haram was trying to kill him. He has challenged Interior Minister Theresa May's decision to keep him in detention and has been on hunger strike for 90 days. But they refused to direct his release from the Harmondsworth immigration removal centre near Heathrow Airport in west London until the hearing.