TheCable

Bruce Fein, the American lawyer of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has petitioned the United Nations security council to probe Nigeria and Kenya over the circumstances surrounding the latter’s arrest and extradition.

In June 2021, Kanu was arrested in Kenya and brought to Nigeria after he jumped bail and fled to the UK in 2017.

He has since been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).

The petition, dated April 9, 2022, was co-signed by Uche Kanu, wife of the IPOB leader, and addressed to Barbara Woodward, UK ambassador to the UN.

The IPOB leader’s wife and the lawyer asked the security council to investigate the involvement of Nigeria and Kenya in the “criminal kidnapping, torture, extraordinary rendition” of Kanu and to establish a special tribunal outside both countries to prosecute persons found culpable.

“Dear President Woodward: 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,” the petition reads.

“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.”