Kanu petitions UN Security Council over rights violation, demands independent probe

Embattled leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu, has sent a petition to the United Nations Security Council alleging the violation of his rights by the Nigerian government.

Kanu also demanded the UN agency to set up an independent commission to investigate the complicity of Nigerian and Kenyan government officials in his arrest, extradition and subsequent detention in the facility of the Directorate of State Service (DSS).

In a letter dated April 9 and signed by Kanu’s UK lawyer, Bruce Fein and his wife, Uche, and addressed to the UK Ambassador to the United Nations, Barbara Woodward, and the President of the United Nations Security Council, Kanu called on the council to thoroughly investigate his “arbitrary detention in solitary confinement by the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

The letter which was made available to Ripples Nigeria by Kanu’s Special Counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, on Sunday, reads in part:

“Re: Petition to the United Nations Security Council to establish an independent commission to investigate the complicity of Nigerian and Kenyan government officials or their agents in the criminal kidnapping, torture, extraordinary rendition, and indefinite arbitrary detention of United Kingdom citizen Nnamdi Kanu from Nairobi to Abuja and for the establishment of a Special Tribunal outside either Nigeria or Kenya to prosecute the suspects identified by the Commission.

“We, the undersigned respectfully petition the United Nations Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, to pass a resolution establishing an international independent investigation commission to establish criminal responsibility for Nnamdi Kanu’s kidnapping, torture, and extraordinary rendition from Nairobi, Kenya to Abuja, Nigeria on or about June 2021, and indefinite, ongoing, arbitrary detention in solitary confinement thereafter by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Read also: Anambra Archbishop predicts Kanu’s release by May

“The resolution should also establish a Special Tribunal to prosecute persons the commission finds have been responsible for Nnamdi Kanu’s kidnapping, torture, extraordinary rendition, and arbitrary detention.

“Convincing evidence in the public domain, direct and circumstantial, implicate Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian Attorney General Abubakar Malami, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, among others, in the above-referenced crimes against Nnamdi Kanu.

“The governments of Nigeria and Kenya cannot be trusted to investigate or prosecute themselves. The universal legal principle that a person cannot be a judge in his own case applies here.

“We submit that Security Council Resolution 1595, which established an independent commission to investigate the assassins of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Harari, and Security Council Resolution 1757, which established a Special Tribunal for the prosecution of the responsible parties found by the independent Commission, should be considered as templates for the corresponding resolutions we are requesting for investigation and prosecution of the crimes against Nnamdi Kanu by Nigerian and Kenyan government officials or their agents.

“We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you or your staff in person or over the internet to further elaborate on this petition.”

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