Jarvis Johnson, a representative for District 139 in the Texas House of Representatives, has demanded that Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, be promptly released from custody.
Johnson charged the government of President Muhammadu Buhari with “genocide and crimes against Biafrans” in a statement released on Monday.
He urged the US administration to exert pressure on the Nigerian government to free the “foremost freedom fighter” right away.
“Mazi Kanu is the foremost Freedom Fighter for the rights of oppressed people in Nigeria. For over 19 months, after he was kidnapped in Kenya, tortured, and illegally taken to Nigeria, he has been in solitary confinement. In July 2022, a United Nations Working Group, after its deliberations on his matter, called for his unconditional release.
“The Nigerian Government has not complied. On October 22, several Nigerian trial and appeals courts, acquitted and discharged him of all the bogus charges levied against him by the Nigerian government. The Nigerian government has refused to obey the orders of its own courts, and Kanu remains in solitary confinement enforced by its (FG’s) Secret Police.
“Kanu’s health conditions have been ignored by Nigeria’s Secret Police. He has been denied access to his doctors and to the regular supply of his medications. His health has increasingly deteriorated, and it is now feared that he may die in solitary confinement.
“Kanu’s only offence is that he is the leading advocate for the freedom of all oppressed Nigerians, and for a referendum on the Biafran issue. The right of free speech including political advocacy is a cornerstone of all democracies. At a time when democracy is threatened globally, it is imperative that we all join hands to protect Kanu’s right of freedom of speech. The illegal kidnapping, torture, and solitary confinement of Kanu offends our democratic norms. So does the willful disobedience of the judgments of its own courts by the Nigerian government.
“I am demanding for the immediate release of Kanu. The government of Nigeria needs to comply with the UN Mandate and the Orders of its own Courts. The Nigerian government is carrying out another form of genocide, one citizen at a time. I am calling on the American government to get involved to stop this genocide. We have protected other countries around this world to help vulnerable populations; we need to do the same for Nigeria and its Biafran citizens,” Johnson stated.
According to reports, Kanu has been in the custody of the Department of State Services since June 2021, when the Nigerian government re-arrested him in Kenya and sent him back to Nigeria for a new trial on treasonable felony and terrorism charges that it had brought against him.
A three-judge Court of Appeal court unanimously decided in October 2022 that Kanu’s extradition from Kenya was unlawful.
Kanu had already been exonerated and cleared of all accusations by the court.
