The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Maazi Nnamdi Kanu, has written an open letter to the United States President, Joe Biden, requesting that he do not sanction the sale of weapons or ammunition to Nigeria because of the several instances of mass killings and ethnoreligious violence under the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Kanu added that the transfer of weapons or sales to the present Nigerian government would mean more attacks on the Christians, which goes against the “Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.”
The letter dated May 1, 2021, and titled, “Re: Request for US Military Assistance By President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria.”
In the letter obtained by SaharaReporters, the IPOB leader said, “President Buhari has made Nigeria the most dangerous country in the world for Christians, Jews, and Nigeria’s indigenous peoples, particularly those of the former Republic of Biafra. Hundreds of thousands are routinely plundered, tortured, or killed with impunity by Nigerian security forces controlled and populated by Buhari’s Fulani Islamic tribesmen, often in collaboration with Fulani herdsmen (Islamist terrorist group that has been internationally branded the 4th deadliest terrorist grouping in the world).
“These atrocities have been confirmed and published by US State Department in its various Human Rights Reports on Nigeria, by Amnesty International and other credible bodies. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended listing Nigeria as a country of concern because of its religious oppressions. United States sales or transfers of weapons to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram are diverted to killing and terrorizing Christians and Jews.
“President Buhari is promoting radical Islam in secular Nigeria. He has endorsed Sharia law in twelve northern Nigerian states. He has treated Boko Haram with kid gloves, releasing from detention hundreds arrested by the previous administration.
“He recruited them into the Nigerian army and offered a generous foreign scholarship to hundreds of them. He has appointed radical Muslims to head every security agency in Nigeria, including Sheik Isa Pantami, whose profuse support for Al Qaeda and Taliban was widely published recently. Yet, Mr. Buhari has refused to sack him from his sensitive position as Minister of Communication overseeing the biometric data of Nigerians. By defending Sheik Pantami, Mr. Buhari is seemingly aligning with Mr. Pantami’s terrorist sympathies. Mr. Buhari is a strong ally of the Islamic Republic of Iran and China, and he has generally pursued policies that put Nigeria at odds with US national interest since you came to office.”
Kanu said his prayers include that “we respectfully suggest that you consider, among other things, denying weapons sales or transfers to Nigeria under the Leahy Amendment; listing Nigeria complicit in persecuting Christian and Jews under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
“We respectfully urge the President to invoke Section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA) particularly, as amended, which prohibits the furnishing of assistance authorized by the FAA and the Arms Export Control Act to any foreign security force unit where there is credible information that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.”
