The United Nations (UN) has been asked to probe the Governments of Nigeria and Kenya over the repatriation of Nnamdi Kanu.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader was dragged to Nigeria in June 2021 after he was arrested in Kenya.
At the weekend, Bruce Fein, his international counsel and Uche Kanu, the wife, wrote to Barbara Woodward, President of the UN Security Council.
Woodward is also the United Kingdom Ambassador to the world body in New York, United States.
The petition urged the UN to establish an independent commission to “investigate the complicity of Nigerian and Kenyan government officials or their agents”.
They were accused of “criminal kidnapping, torture, extraordinary rendition, and indefinite arbitrary detention of United Kingdom citizen Nnamdi Kanu from Nairobi to Abuja”.
The duo also called for the establishment of a Special Tribunal outside either Nigeria or Kenya to prosecute the suspects identified by the commission.
They urged and demanded that the panel establish criminal responsibility for Nnamdi Kanu’s “kidnapping, torture, and extraordinary rendition from Nairobi, Kenya to Abuja, Nigeria”.
The petition says the agitator faces indefinite, ongoing, arbitrary detention in solitary confinement by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Fein and Uche want the resolution to establish a Special Tribunal to prosecute persons the commission finds have been responsible for Nnamdi Kanu’s ordeal.
“Convincing evidence in the public domain, direct and circumstantial, implicates 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 petition reminded the UN that the Governments of Nigeria and Kenya cannot be trusted to investigate or prosecute themselves.
“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.
We are requesting for investigation and prosecution of the crimes against Nnamdi Kanu by Nigerian and Kenyan government officials or their agents”, the petitioners added.
