November 06, (THEWILL) — The detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has alleged widespread state-sponsored killings of Judeo-Christian and Igbo populations in Nigeria’s South-East region.
In the four-page open letter dated November 6, 2025, and delivered through the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Kanu urged US President, Donald Trump, to use his moral authority and global influence to halt the killings, likening the situation to Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
Seeking urgent U.S.-led international inquiry to prevent what he described as “a looming genocide”, Kanu wrote: “Mr President, history will judge us by what we do when genocide knocks. One tweet, one sanction, one inquiry could save millions.”
Kanu, who has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since June 2021, accused the Nigerian government of defying multiple court rulings, including a 2022 Court of Appeal judgement that discharged and acquitted him of all charges and ordered his release. He said his continued detention was an “unlawful imprisonment” and “a gross violation of international law”.
According to him, the Nigerian state and its security agencies have, since 2015, engaged in a systematic campaign to demonise IPOB and eliminate its members through violent crackdowns, under the pretext of counter-terrorism.
“Nigeria has weaponised insecurity to justify extermination”, he alleged.
The letter, titled “A Call to You, President Trump”, detailed a series of incidents Kanu described as “irrefutably documented atrocities” against Igbo Christians in Eastern Nigeria. These include the Nkpor Biafra Heroes Day Massacre (May 30, 2016), the National High School Aba Massacre (February 9, 2016), Operation Python Dance II (September 2017), and the Obigbo Massacre (October 2020) — all of which he said were confirmed by reports from Amnesty International, the United Nations, and Intersociety Nigeria.
He further alleged that the Nigerian military and security forces had acted with “state complicity” in these attacks, shielding perpetrators while criminalising victims.
Kanu specifically named Lt.-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, Nigeria’s former Chief of Army Staff, one of the officials who should face U.S. Magnitsky Act sanctions for alleged human rights violations.
In the letter, Kanu called on the United States Congress to convene emergency hearings on what he termed “the Igbo Christian genocide” and to launch a U.S.-led independent inquiry with access to “mass graves, military logs, and survivor testimonies.” He also urged Washington to support an internationally supervised referendum on self-determination for the Igbo people as “the only peaceful path to ending this cycle of violence.”
Kanu, who described himself as a “prisoner of conscience”, insisted that IPOB remains committed to peace, faith, and non-violence despite what he called “years of state persecution and propaganda.”
He said, “IPOB rejects every form of violence. We seek only justice, truth, and freedom.”
The letter concluded with a prayer and a plea for global conscience, quoting the Bible and invoking divine intervention. “May the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—who delivered Israel from Pharaoh—grant you wisdom and courage to deliver His people once again”, Kanu wrote.
His counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, who confirmed the letter’s authenticity, said it was addressed directly to President Trump through the U.S. Embassy in Abuja. Ejimakor added that the correspondence was accompanied by judicial rulings, UN reports, and human rights documents substantiating Kanu’s claims of persecution and illegal detention.
As of press time, neither the Nigerian government nor the U.S. Embassy had officially commented on the letter.
