Bruce Fein, a counsel to the detained leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu has written to the US Senate and House of Representatives, urging the parliament to recommend an adequate sanction to President Joe Biden against Nigerian leader, Muhammadu Buhari and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.
Bruce Fein in the letter dated October 20, 2022, and obtained by ABN TV through Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, Kanu’s special council cited “Gross violations of internationally recognized human rights against Biafran leader Nnamdi Kanu, including kidnapping, torture, and prolonged arbitrary detention to retaliate for exercising internationally recognized rights to freedom of expression and association,” as the reason for seeking imposition of sanctions against Buhari and Malami.
Bruce Fein also reminded the Senate and House of Representatives that the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an Opinion finding Nnamdi Kanu’s detention in violation of sixteen (16) international human rights guarantees and subsequently ordered his immediate and unconditional release, an order the Buhari-led federal government of Nigeria has not obeyed nearly three months later.
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The letter read in part, “In January 2022, following the extraordinary rendition of Mr. Kanu, a Nigerian High Court judgment impliedly exonerated him from the Nigerian government’s Orwellian claim that he had jumped bail in evading its notorious attempted assassination.
“On October 13, 2022, the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, Abuja Judicial Division, Holden at Abuja, decreed that Nigeria’s detention of Mr. Kanu was illegal because of his extraordinary rendition from Kenya in violation of international and state laws. The Court ordered the dismissal of all charges against him. Again, President Buhari and Attorney General Malami have flouted the Court’s orders and kept Nnamdi Kanu illegally detained.
“The Opinions of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Court of Appeals of Nigeria speak for themselves. They are crystal clear.”
“The sanctions should include ineligibility for a visa to enter the United States and blocking of all transactions in properties of Mr. Buhari and Mr. Malami in the United States,” Bruce Fein recommended.
He said Buhari and Malami are a threat to international peace and security with their flagrant disobedience to court orders, calling for punitive measures against them.
The court of Appeal in Abuja had earlier in the week discharged and acquitted Nnamdi Kanu of all charges leveled against him by the federal government but the government is yet to comply by releasing the embattled separatist leader.
