The United States of America, has been asked to re-designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, CPC and subsequently place her on the US watchlist over the rising spate of killings by bandits and herdsmen.
The call was made by a delegation of American Veterans of Igbo Descent, AVID, and Rising Sun & Ambassadors for Self Defense; during its recent visit to the Capitol Hill, Washington DC, where it met with some US congress members to lobby for the release of the incarcerated leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
It will be recalled that the US President Donald Trump, in his first term, had designated Nigeria as a CPC nation, but his successor, Joe Biden removed Nigeria out of the watchlist when he assumed power.
Addressing the press after the Capitol Hill engagement, the President of AVID, Dr Sylvester Onyia, said they also sensitised the congress on the rising violation of human rights, calculated ethnic cleansing and religious atrocities perpetrated in Nigeria by those bent on dispossessing the Indigenous people of their ancestral lands.
He decried the barbaric activities of the killer herdsmen and bandits slaughtering Nigerians, mostly Christians, insisting the government has failed to protect the hapless people”.
The AVID President, who also recalled the killing of 27 unarmed Biafra agitators celebrating the inauguration of President Trump in 2017 by the Nigeria security operatives in Port Harcourt Rivers State demanded US action.
He further said the delegation was at the Capitol Hill to sensitise the US congress on the plight of the IPOB Leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who has been in solitary confinement since his abduction in Kenya and extraordinary rendition to Nigeria in 2021.
AVID and its allied group renewed their demand for the immediate and unconditional release of Kanu, who they insisted, “is not Nigeria's problem but part of its solution”.
“We are here to bring our concerns to the American folks that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu needs to be released now.
“He is unjustly incarcerated. We have told President Ahmed Tinubu, just as we told President Buhari who arrested him, to release him because he didn't do anything to anybody.
“We also came to remind the world about what happened on January 20, 2017 when President Donald Trump was being inaugurated for his first tenure.
“The Nigerian security forces shot at, and killed 27 youths of Igbo descent celebrating Trump's inauguration in Port Harcourt. The innocent victims did nothing other than cheer a US President.
” This happened and nobody has been brought to account. So, we are asking the US Government, now under President Trump, to look into the matter because it was democracy that was being celebrated, and those innocent youths were slaughtered by the Nigerian security personnel as chicken.”
A member of the delegation, Rev. Father Augustine Odinmegwa, accused Britain of complicity in Kanu's continued incarceration, wondering why the British Government has not demanded his release despite being her citizen.
“Why are they still holding Mazi Nnamdi Kanu? We believe that as a British citizen, the British Government has a hand in it. Kanu was discussing the atrocities being committed in Nigeria.
“Those holding Nigeria down do not want any development in the country. Jihadists and Fulani herders are busy killing and displacing innocent indigenous Nigerians and grabbing their lands, and the world is watching.
The delegation argued that if no urgent action were taken to stall the advancement of the rampaging bandits and criminal herdsmen into the South East, they would soon seize crude oil in the region, and challenge the US and Western interests.
” We want the world, more especially the US Government to look into it. If nothing is done now, these jihadists will get hold of the South East and the Christians that they are trying to exterminate, then get hold of the sweet crude. Once this happens, the next thing will be to challenge the US and even Britain.
Rev. Odimegwa expressed shock and worry over the recent advice by the Director General of the Department of State Security, Adeola Ajayi, for Nigerians to take measures to defend themselves against bandits, saying that such advice coming from a high profile intelligence chief, suggested that “Nigeria is either becoming or is already a failed state “.
” The DG of DSS, who in US, we can equate to the Director of Homeland Security, is privy to top secret intelligence. For him to publicly tell Nigerians to arm themselves and defend themselves, means that the country is incapacitated.
“It means that the people are now on their own. The primary responsibility of every government is protection of lives and property. Is the Nigerian Government abdicating its responsibility?
Describing the atrocities of bandits and Fulani herdsmen as genocidal, Odimegwa called for urgent US action to avoid further mayhem and displacements and emigrations.
” What is happening in Nigeria is that a group of bandits and terrorists has taken it upon themselves to be massacring people at will. They carry arms, and are all over the place unchecked.
“They are decimating ethnic nationalities in the name of herdsmen/farmers' clash which is a ruse. There is a hidden agenda because they are rather carrying out ethnic cleansing and religious atrocities.
The delegation, therefore, urged South East Governors to prioritize the defense of their people by ensuring the establishment of vigilante groups in every community; and to get rid of every stranger inhabiting forests in the South East.
The group also urged Ndigbo in the diaspora to assist their various local communities to form and equip formidable local vigilante groups to help secure lives and property as government has failed in its primary responsibility.
“Igbos in the US, Europe and other parts of the world, wake up. Raise money and ensure that your respective communities are protected. Establish working vigilante groups. The time to pretend that everything is okay in Nigeria is gone.
Nnamdi Kanu has been warning Nigeria about these mercenaries sponsored to kill them, and the Nigerian Government has failed to act.
Contributing, Kanu's international lawyer, Bruce Fein who accompanied the delegation, said “Kanu is a victim of a crime perpetrated by the nation of Nigeria.”
He recalled how the IPOB leader was “in 2021, kidnapped and tortured in Kenya, then against international protocols, extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria and subjected to solitary confinement ever since then”.
Mr Fein accused Nigeria of violating 16 human rights covenants vis a vis the continued incarceration of Kanu.
“The UN Working Group in Geneva, has very unambiguously, called for the immediate and unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The Nigeria Government has violated 16 human rights covenants that are binding on all nations whether or not they accept them. Nigeria has flouted this for three years Kanu is remanded in solidarity confinement.”
On some of the steps that could be taken to pressurize Nigeria to free Kanu, his international attorney said Nigeria could be suspended from the UN General Assembly; face arms embargo and hike in trade tariffs by the Executive Orders of the US President.
“During apartheid, South Africa was suspended from the UN General Assembly until Nelson Mandela was released from detention. We have petitioned the UN urging it to take similar action against Nigeria. The US President can also issue executive order increasing trade tarrifs against Nigerian products until Kanu is released.
Another member of the delegation, John Gregg, an American who said he had spent 20 years in Southern Nigeria, warned that the failure of the US intervention could result in thousands of emigrants from the region seeking refuge in the US.
” In fact, if we (US) don't do anything, that place (South East region), is going to implode, and more people will be coming here as emigrants. Over 90 per cent of the victims of these bandit/herdsmen attacks are Christians.
“A recent statistics said about 30,000 people, mostly Christians, were either killed or extremely violated; and another 10,000 displaced in the past nine years. Put together, we are talking of about 40,000 people.”
Contributing, Dr Evans Nwankwo, who was also on the delegation, said the forces of darkness were on rampage to overtake Nigeria, and called on the US congress to take immediate action against the masterminds.
” I'm asking the US congress to be the light that will overtake the darkness trying to overshadow Nigeria. Let them enact laws to stop what's going on in Nigeria by designating Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, CPC.”
He cited the abduction, and continued captivity of Leah Sharibu; as well as the stoning of Deborah Samuel, a student of College of Education, Sokoto; as proofs that human rights violation in Nigeria was at its peak.
He, however, expressed satisfaction with the level of cooperation the delegation elicited from the US congress during the engagements.
” I'm glad the US congress is taking notes and giving us attention. We want Nigeria to be designated as a CPC country which Trump designated it before but the Joe Biden administration removed it.
“Now, both the Senate and the House of Representatives are coming together to put Nigeria back as CPC country which needs to be watched, and may be sanctioned until they change their ways. The US holds the beacon of hope for democracy in the world, and that's why we're here”.
He lambasted those referring to Kanu as a separatist, arguing that before calling for referendum, Kanu was urging the Nigeria Government to address the plights of the oppressed people, and resolve youth's unemployment but he was ignored .
Nwankwo, who said about 4-5 million indigenous Nigerians displaced by bandits and herdsmen are today, squatting in Internally Displaced Persons, IDP centres, declared that all the fore-warnings and predictions by Kanu about the evil agenda of bandits had all come true.
He regretted that instead of releasing and engaging Kanu for solution to Nigeria's woes, the authorities had continued to detain him indefinitely.
