The leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has written to US President Donald Trump, demanding an investigation into the “killing of Igbos and Christians” in south-east Nigeria.
Mr Kanu, in a letter dated 6 November, claimed that the alleged Christian genocide in Nigeria is not restricted to the northern part of the country, but also in the South-east, where extremist groups allegedly operate with state support.
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In the letter, which was transmitted through his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, to the US Embassy in Abuja, Mr Kanu, who is in custody of the State Security Services, claimed that “Judeo-Christians are being systematically exterminated under the guise of counter-terrorism.”
Mr Kanu claimed Boko Haram, ISWAP, and Fulani militias operate in the South-east alongside the Nigerian military, who he described as the “primary perpetrator” of violence against Igbo Christians and are “shielded by a false narrative that blames victims.”
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Mr Kanu, who the Nigerian government accuses of instigating violence in the South-east, then gave examples of some killings in the region, allegedly by security agencies.
He stated that in 2016, the security forces opened fire on peaceful Christian worshippers at St Edmund’s Catholic Church, killing scores and dumping bodies in rivers. The same year, soldiers executed praying students at the National High School in Aba and buried their bodies in a borrow pit, he said.
“Amnesty International (2016) reported at least 150 peaceful Christian worshippers killed, bodies dumped in rivers. UN Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard confirmed that at least 60 were killed and over 70 were injured in St. Edmund’s Catholic Church during prayers.
“This was not a clash. It was a massacre of worshippers commemorating their fallen. In Aba, 22 were killed on-site, and 13 bodies were exhumed from a borrow pit. Children were executed for singing ‘Sweet Jesus,” the separatist wrote.
The IPOB leader asked that Mr Trump launch a US-led inquiry into “state-sponsored massacres of Judeo-Christians in Eastern Nigeria, with full access to mass graves, military logs, and survivor testimonies.”
He also requested an emergency Congressional hearing on the matter.
Nigeria’s CPC designation
Mr Kanu’s letter came days after Mr Trump designated Nigeria a country of Particular Concern and then threatened military action over an inaccurate claim of Christian genocide.
He warned last week that the US military might be ordered to “wipe out the radical Islamic terrorists” responsible for attacks on Christians if the Nigerian government fails to act.
Although local and international conflict and human rights experts have cautioned that describing the Nigerian security situation is an attack on Christians is reductionist and inaccurate, the American leader has continued to maintain his position.
Mr Trump claimed the US is devoted to saving the “Great Christian Population around the World.”
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” he declared.
Responding to this, Mr Kanu told Mr Trump that the US President’s claims were factual.
“You have seen the truth: Christians in Nigeria face an existential threat,” he wrote.
Mr Kanu also narrated his ordeal to the US president. He told Mr Trump that he was “forcibly abducted from Kenya in 2021 in an extraordinary rendition operation-an act that violated Kenyan and international law.”
“I was illegally transported to Nigeria and thrown into solitary detention in Abuja, without a valid subsisting charge and for the sole crime of defending my people’s right to life, faith, and self-determination under international law,” he said.
On his detention, he said, although the Nigerian Court of Appeal discharged and acquitted him in October 2022, he is still held in custody.
READ ALSO: Court gives Nnamdi Kanu ‘final chance to present his defence
“I was never released, so there was no re-arrest, only continued unlawful imprisonment in blatant violation of constitutionally protected double jeopardy safeguards,” he said.
However, contrary to Mr Kanu’s claim, his trial for alleged treason continued in court after the Supreme Court overruled the Court of Appeal and ordered his trial.
The state has presented its witnesses, but Mr Kanu’s refusal to present a defence has stalled the trial.
On Thursday, the Federal High Court gave Mr Kanu a “final chance” to present his defence. The trial continues on Friday.
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