- By Attorney W. Bruce Del Valle
The Leaders and People of the International Community of Nations are Called Upon to Halt Nigeria’s Flagrant Human Rights Violations Arising from the Continued Unlawful Incarceration of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
The World’s Leaders can no longer ignore the cause of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The Free Nations of the World must join together and demand his immediate and unconditional release from incarceration by the Nigerian Government as a political prisoner in violation of International Human Rights laws and the laws of Nigeria.
A demand from the International Community must issue forth requiring that the Republic of Nigeria cease conducting itself as a Pariah State and comply with the Rule of Law and International Human Rights laws and grant immediate freedom for Nnamdi Kanu, on behalf of the Igbo People as the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, known as “IPOB”.
Nnamdi Kanu is remarkably similar to Nelson Mandela in his charismatic approach to securing freedom and safety for over 42 million Igbo in Nigeria, to the direct benefit of Nigeria in general and the over 20 million Igbo in the diaspora worldwide.
Like Mandela, Nnamdi Kanu pursues self-determination through non-violent means and has been jailed for two years without trial for his political views, his ethnicity, and his efforts to assist his people to break free from continued ethnic and religious apartheid persecution and genocide.
Astoundingly, two separate Nigerian Courts in 2022 ruled that Nnamdi Kanu must be freed from imprisonment and all charges against him immediately dismissed and awarded him Five Hundred Million Naira against the Federal Republic of Nigeria as penalty for his June 2021 kidnapping and arbitrary detention.
Additionally, the United Nations has also entered a scathing judgment against the Federal Republic of Nigeria declaring the kidnapping and continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu in blatant violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In this regard, Nnamdi Kanu betters Nelson Mandela in that there were never judicial decisions from the courts or the U.N. demanding the release of Mandela. Unfortunately, despite these pronouncements of law within his own country and the International Community, Nnamdi Kanu languishes in prison as the “Nelson Mandela of the New Millennium”.
The Nigerian government ignores and refuses to follow its own laws and binding International Human Rights Treaties in violation of Human Rights and the Rule of Law and Good Governance.
Evidence has come to light that Nnamdi Kanu’s Nigerian jailers have denied his medical care and forced him on an unhealthy diet calculated to end his life. Recently, a horrifying truth has been uncovered – prisoners with virulent and deadly diseases such as tuberculosis and Covid-19 have been purposefully housed in close proximity to Nnamdi Kanu in the hopes that he will conveniently be stricken and die while in custody.
These blatant injustices and acts of egregious inhumanity cannot stand. The newly elected Tinubu Administration has indicated that it wants to return Nigeria to good stead amongst the World’s Nations. Compliance with the Nigerian Court Orders and the United Nations rulings in favor of the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from imprisonment would be emblematic of adherence to the Rule of Law and Good Governance and signal Nigeria’s return to the company of the World’s Nations observant of human rights and break from its recent past.
The People of Nigeria, and the people and Leaders of the World Community are called upon to join in the global advocacy effort in support of Human Rights and the Rule of Law and Good Governance in Nigeria through demand for the immediate and unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu from his wrongful imprisonment.
W. Bruce Del Valle, Esquire
DelValle Law PLLC
Washington D.C, USA.
