The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has written to United States President Donald Trump, urging him to initiate an independent investigation into what he described as state-backed genocidal killings of Christians and Igbo people in Nigeria’s South-East, according to Very Nigerian.
In the letter dated November 6, 2025, and transmitted through the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Kanu—currently held in solitary confinement at the Department of State Services (DSS)—called on Trump to act on his recent statement that America was ready to use military intervention and suspend aid if Nigeria failed to protect its Christian population.
Kanu appealed for “a U.S.-led independent inquiry into state-sponsored massacres of Judeo-Christians in Eastern Nigeria, granting investigators access to mass graves, military records, and survivor accounts.”
He wrote, “I greet you in the spirit of the Judeo-Christian faith and shared values. Your courageous declaration on October 31, 2025, that the United States is prepared to act militarily and withdraw aid if Nigeria fails to protect Christians, has rekindled hope among millions abandoned to their fate.”
Kanu asserted that the persecution of Christians was not limited to northern Nigeria but had spread to the Igbo heartland, where, he claimed, “Judeo-Christians are being systematically exterminated under the pretext of counter-terrorism.”
Listing several incidents, including the 2016 Nkpor and Aba shootings, the 2017 military invasion of his Afaraukwu home during “Operation Python Dance,” and the 2020 Obigbo killings, Kanu described these as part of “a concealed genocide.”
He cited reports from Amnesty International, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, and Nigerian human rights group Intersociety. He quoted Amnesty’s 2016 report alleging that over 150 peaceful Christian protesters were killed and their bodies dumped in rivers. He also referenced UN findings that at least 60 people were killed and 70 wounded at St. Edmund’s Catholic Church during prayers.
“These were not clashes,” Kanu wrote, “but deliberate massacres of worshippers. In Aba, 22 were shot dead, and 13 bodies later recovered from a borrow pit. Even children singing hymns were executed.”
He alleged that the attacks were carried out by soldiers under the command of then-Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, who was later appointed Ambassador to Benin Republic “to shield him from international prosecution.”
Kanu recounted surviving four assassination attempts and described his 2021 “extraordinary rendition” from Kenya as an illegal abduction, later condemned by a Kenyan court.
He reminded Trump that the Nigerian Court of Appeal discharged and acquitted him in October 2022 but that “the government defied its own judiciary and kept me in detention, violating constitutional safeguards against double jeopardy.”
Citing the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Kanu said his imprisonment had been declared “arbitrary, unlawful, and politically motivated,” calling it “a capture of the rule of law to silence a Judeo-Christian voice.”
He urged Trump to convene emergency Congressional hearings on what he called “the Igbo Christian genocide” and to impose Magnitsky Act sanctions on senior 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 route to ending this cycle of violence.”
Kanu concluded: “Mr. President, history will judge us by what we do when genocide knocks. You have the power to prevent another Rwanda in Africa. One tweet, one sanction, one inquiry could save millions.”
He signed as “Mazi Nnamdi Okwu Kanu, Leader, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Prisoner of Conscience – DSS Custody, Abuja,” reaffirming his commitment to non-violence: “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.”
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