Kanu Writes Trump, Seeks U.S. Probe Into Alleged Killings in Nigeria’s South-East

Ahead of his much-anticipated court appearance today, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump to launch an independent investigation into what he described as the “killings of Christians and Igbo people” in Nigeria’s South-East region.

In a letter dated November 6, 2025, and delivered through his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, to the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Kanu urged Trump to act on his recent statement that America was “prepared to act militarily and cut aid if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population.”

Kanu’s letter called for a U.S.-led independent inquiry into the plight of Judeo-Christians in Eastern Nigeria, with full access to evidence and testimonies from survivors.

> “I extend warm greetings to you in the name of the Judeo-Christian faith and values we both hold dear. Your bold declaration on October 31, 2025, that the United States is ‘prepared to act’ militarily and cut aid if Nigeria fails to protect its Christian population ignited hope in the hearts of millions who have been abandoned by the world,” the letter read.

The IPOB leader further told the U.S. President that Christians in Nigeria were facing “an existential threat,” particularly in the Igbo heartland, and urged global attention to the matter.

Citing reports by international human rights organisations, Kanu referenced Amnesty International’s 2016 report, which documented at least 150 peaceful Christian worshippers killed, and the UN Special Rapporteur’s confirmation of 60 people killed and 70 injured at St. Edmund’s Catholic Church during prayers.

> “This was not a clash. It was a massacre of worshippers commemorating their fallen. In Aba, 22 were killed on-site, and 13 bodies were later exhumed from a borrow pit. Children were executed for singing ‘Sweet Jesus,’” Kanu alleged.


Meanwhile, the American Veterans of Igbo Descent (AVID) has denounced what it termed a “continuing judicial travesty” in Kanu’s trial before Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

In a statement signed by its President, Dr. Sylvester Onyia, AVID expressed grave concern over the “erosion of constitutional and judicial standards” in the case, describing it as a violation of both domestic and international principles of fair hearing.

The group cited Section 36(12) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, which states that “no person shall be tried for any criminal offence unless that offence and its penalty are defined by a written law.”

> “This is a non-derogable constitutional safeguard a cornerstone of due process and a test of any nation’s commitment to justice,” the statement added.