From Joshua Chibuzo Andrew
The IPOB Leader Nnamdi Kanu, has written to United States President, Donald Trump, urging him to launch an independent inquiry into the “state-sponsored genocidal killings” of Christians and Igbo people in Nigeria’s South-East region.
In the letter dated November 6, 2025, and delivered through the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Kanu, who remains in solitary detention at the Department of State Services (DSS) headquarters, appealed to Trump to act on his recent declaration that the United States was “prepared to act militarily and cut aid if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population.”
Kanu, who also urged Trump to “launch a U.S.-led independent inquiry into state-sponsored massacres of Judeo-Christians in Eastern Nigeria, with full access to mass graves, military logs, and survivor testimonies.”
Kanu wrote: “I extend warm greetings to you in the name of the Judeo-Christian faith and values we both hold dear.
“Your bold declaration on October 31, 2025, that the United States is ‘prepared to act’ militarily and cut aid if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population ignited hope in the hearts of millions who have been abandoned by the world.”
He added: “You have seen the truth: Christians in Nigeria face an existential threat. I write to you now to reveal that this genocide is not confined to the North; it has metastasized into the Igbo heartland, where Judeo-Christians are being systematically exterminated under the guise of counter-terrorism.”
The IPOB leader cited several incidents which he claimed were evidence of “a hidden genocide” against Judeo-Christians in the South-East, including the 2016 Nkpor and Aba massacres, the 2017 “Operation Python Dance” raid on his Afaraukwu home, and the 2020 Obigbo killings.
Quoting multiple human rights reports, Kanu referenced Amnesty International, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, and Nigerian rights group, the Intersociety.
According to him: “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 injured in St. Edmund’s Catholic Church during prayers.”
Kanu alleged: “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.’”
According to Kanu, these attacks were perpetrated by Nigerian military forces under the command of then-Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai.
“In 2021, President Buhari appointed him Ambassador to Benin, granting him diplomatic immunity to evade ICC prosecution,” Kanu said, calling it “state-sponsored impunity on a genocidal scale.”
The letter also recounted Kanu’s personal ordeal since 2015, claiming that he has survived four assassination attempts and was “forcibly abducted from Kenya in an extraordinary rendition operation” on June 20, 2021, an act a Kenyan High Court later ruled illegal.
Kanu reminded Trump that the Nigerian Court of Appeal had discharged and acquitted him in October 2022, but that “the government defied its own judiciary, refusing to release me as ordered.”
He continued: “I was never released, so there was no re-arrest, only continued unlawful imprisonment in blatant violation of the constitutionally protected double jeopardy safeguards.”
Citing the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Kanu said his imprisonment had been declared “arbitrary, unlawful, politically motivated.”
He described his continued detention as “a state capture of the rule of law to silence a Judeo-Christian voice.”
Kanu urged Trump to “launch a U.S.-led independent inquiry into state-sponsored massacres of Judeo-Christians in Eastern Nigeria, with full access to mass graves, military logs, and survivor testimonies.”
He also called for “emergency Congressional hearings on the Igbo Christian genocide” and the imposition of Magnitsky Act sanctions on top Nigerian officials, including former Army Chief Buratai and former DSS Director-General, Yusuf Bichi.
He further appealed for U.S. support for “an internationally-supervised referendum on self-determination for the Igbo people,” describing it as “the only peaceful path to ending this circle of violence.”
Kanu stressed, “Mr. President, history will judge us by what we do when genocide knocks.
“You have the power to stop a second Rwanda in Africa. One tweet, one sanction, one inquiry could save millions.”
He signed off as “Mazi Nnamdi Okwu Kanu, Leader, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Prisoner of Conscience – DSS Custody, Abuja,” emphasizing that he remains committed to non-violence and faith: “We seek only justice, truth, and freedom, even from a prison cell.
“May the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob grant you wisdom and courage to deliver His people once again.”
