Fein, an international lawyer and spokesperson for Kanu, addressed the petition to Karim Khan, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, asking the ICC to charge Tsoho with his “co-conspirators, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Nigerian Attorney General Abubakar Malami, and Federal High Court Justice Binta Nyako, for committing crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity against Biafran leader Nnamdi Kanu.
Bruce Fein, the American counsel for the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has filed a petition against Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, Chief Judge (CJ) of Nigeria’s Federal High Court to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Fein, an international lawyer and spokesperson for Kanu, addressed the petition to Karim Khan, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, asking the ICC to charge Tsoho with his “co-conspirators, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Nigerian Attorney General Abubakar Malami, and Federal High Court Justice Binta Nyako, for committing crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity against Biafran leader Nnamdi Kanu.
He said this was part of “a widespread and systematic attack by the Fulani-controlled Federal Government of Nigeria, against the Biafran civilian population in the southeast.”
Kanu is being held by the Department of State Services (DSS) at its headquarters in Abuja, after the Nigerian government repatriated him from Kenya in June 2021, an action his lawyers termed “illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional extradition”.
He is standing trial on charges bordering on treasonable felony and terrorism before the Federal High Court, Abuja.
In the document obtained by SaharaReporters on Friday, Fein said, “The Federal Government of Nigeria ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on September 27, 2001. The Federal Government of Nigeria has initiated no investigation of the crimes alleged herein under Article 17 of the Rome Statute. The ICC possesses jurisdiction over genocide and crimes against humanity as defined by Articles 6 and 7 of the Rome Statute.
“The accused, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, John Terhemba Tosoho, is engaged in an ongoing conspiracy involving co-conspirators Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Nigerian Attorney General Abubakar Malami, and Federal High Court Justice Binta Nyako, to commit crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity against Biafran leader Nnamdi Kanu, as part of a widespread and systematic attack by the Fulani-controlled Federal Government of Nigeria, against the Biafran civilian population in the south-east.
“Chief Judge Tosoho has acted with knowledge of the ongoing systematic Fulani attacks on Biafrans when he conspired with co-conspirators President Buhari, President Kenyatta, Attorney General Malami, and Justice Nyako in Nnamdi Kanu’s kidnapping, torture, extraordinary rendition, arbitrary detention, and persecution because of political views, ethnicity, or religion as amplified anon.
“Chief Judge Tosoho conspired with co-conspirators President Buhari, Attorney General Malami, and Justice Nyako to authorize an illegal secret faux trial of Nnamdi Kanu on April 7, 2022, for alleged terrorist crimes carrying the death penalty as part of an ongoing genocide of Biafrans and crimes against humanity because of their ethnicity, Christianity, and legitimate political objective of self-determination guaranteed by Article 1 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
“According to Nigeria’s Orwellian legal regime, Nnamdi Kanu is guilty of terrorism and treason through exercising his rights to free speech and association protected by the Nigerian Constitution and multiple international human rights covenants in seeking a Biafran independence referendum by peaceful, Gandhi-like means. The Federal Government of Nigeria, after more than ten months of Kanu’s arbitrary detention, has yet to proffer a crumb of evidence implicating him in terrorism or violence. In October 2020, five human rights experts of the United Nations Human Rights Council asked President Buhari within 60 days to submit evidence of Mr. Kanu’s terrorism.
“Mr. Kanu’s seeking a Biafran sovereignty a referendum is not special pleading. South Sudan voted independence from Sudan in a 2011 referendum. The United Kingdom recently afforded Scotland a secession. It did so earlier for Northern Ireland. Canada has afforded Quebec a self-determination vote. The United States periodically permits Puerto Rico to vote between statehood, independence, or commonwealth status. The legal and moral case for Biafran independence is overwhelming. A few pages of history are worth volumes of logic.
“On the other hand, the widely believed Nigerian State protected Jihadists especially the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen are responsible for hacking to death in 2021 alone of at least 270 Igbo Christians. Their death had majorly occurred in Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia and Igbo parts of Delta, Edo (Obiaruku and Igbo-Akiri), Benue and Kogi States. The killings by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen have brought the total number of defenseless citizens traceably killed in Eastern Nigeria in the past 14 months to at least 1,400. This is when added to 1,150 defenseless civilian deaths perpetrated by security forces.
“The Death Toll Could Be 2,400 If 1000 Missing/Presumed Dead Citizens Are Added It is therefore likely correct to say that in all, not less than 2,400 unarmed civilians lost their lives to Nigerian security forces and the Jihadists in Eastern Nigeria in the past 14 months-covering October 2020 to December 2021. This is on account of the fact that the not less than 1000 missing persons are likely to have been killed in custodies and most unlikely to be returned alive to their families again. This is more so when strong evidence abounds showing no traces of location and securing the release of citizens abducted by soldiers of the Nigerian Army in Eastern Nigeria since January 2021. They also hardly handover or transfer those arrested or abducted to the Police. From our investigation, most, if not all those abducted by them since January 2021 have never been located by families or seen alive till date.
“This Special Investigative Report also found that not less than 400 leaders/members of the African Instituted Churches, derogatorily called “White Garment Churches” including Sabbath sects and their likes have been abducted or killed in security custodies. Through religious profiling and persecution and fueled by false labeling and without concrete and indictable pieces of evidence, the Nigerian security forces have designated them as ‘terrorist religious group’ and hatefully accused them of membership and sponsorship of “ESN/IPOB”. Many, if not most of their sacred sanctuaries and symbols of worship and dwelling houses have also been burnt down or destroyed by security forces. Traditional herbalists across Eastern Nigeria have also become endangered species in the hands of security forces. From the camps of about five designated categories of “Unknown Gunmen” operating in Igbo parts of Eastern Nigeria, not less than 100 civilian deaths have been recorded in the Region since July 2021 with Imo, Anambra, Enugu and Abia as the worst hit. From the angle of international law’s recognized “legitimate deaths” or deaths arising from battlefields’ combats between security forces and armed opposition groups (i.e. ESN/’Unknown Gunmen’), a total of 300 security operatives and 100 opposition armed men have lost their lives in the past 14 months.
“It was our further investigative discovery that no fewer than 100 Igbo communities have been invaded by security forces in the past 14 months and caused not less than 1000 homes or dwelling houses to be raided and razed during which properties such as the land housing each of the buildings, the building structure, electronics and electrical appliances, chairs and house utensils, food items, economic trees, domestic animals, automobiles and other valuable items were destroyed or burnt to ashes or looted. From our conservative estimates, each house, its land and properties is worth not less than N35m, translating to N35billion for the estimated 1000 dwelling houses destroyed or burnt down. The remaining N5b arises from other outside-the-house properties destroyed or burnt down including market stores and their wares-totaling N40billion as total properties’ value lost in the hands of the Nigerian security forces particularly soldiers of the Nigerian Army and other branches of the Armed Forces.
“Igbo Nation Target Of The Killings – the killings by Nigerian security forces had occurred mostly in Igbo-Christian parts of Eastern Nigeria including Imo, Rivers, Abia, Ebonyi, Anambra, Enugu and Akwa Ibom States as well as Delta and Cross River States which recorded the lowest number of deaths. Further breakdown indicates that the Nigerian security forces were specifically responsible for killing of at least 1000 defenseless citizens in the East in 2021 while Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen killed not less than 270 in the same 2021. The Nigerian Army had also between October and November 2020 killed not less 150 defenseless civilians in Obigbo (Oyigbo Local Government Area) and its environs in Rivers State and abducted over 700 civilians; and out of the number, 418 have been independently located and freed. While no fewer than 110 defenseless citizens were killed in Obigbo and its environs, the remaining 40 deaths occurred in different secret Army custodies where the Obigbo abductees were secretly detained amidst torture and starvation. Another 100 abducted defenseless citizens were recently (in late November 2021) traced and discovered to have been dumped at Kaduna Prisons and Lock Centers, out of the number, five died. Over 40 of the over 700 abductees were also found to have been killed in various secret Army custodies.
“CHIEF JUDGE JOHN TSOHO’S PARTCIPATION IN AN ONGOING ATTEMPTED JUDCICIAL MURDER OF NNAMDI KANU BY AUTHORIZING A SECRET SHOW TRIAL OF TERRORISM CHARGES CARRYING THE DEATH PENALTY AS PART OF ONGOING GENOCIDE AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AGAINST BIAFRANS THROUGH KILLING, RAPE, TORTURE, STARVATION, DEPRIVATION OF MEDICAL CARE, AND CREATION OF SUBSISTENCE CONDTIONS OF LIFE INTENDED TO DESTORY THE GROUP IN WHOLE OR IN PART BECAUSE OF THEIR ETHNICITY, RELIGION, OR POLITICAL OPINION.
“On or about May 5, 2021, Nnamdi Kanu entered the Republic of Nigeria on his British passport at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, Kenya, and occupied temporary quarters. On June 19, 2021, Mr. Kanu drove himself to the airport to depart. Immediately upon stopping at the basement parking lot and alighting, several armed men abducted, handcuffed, blindfolded, and bundled him into a vehicle and sped away. Mr. Kanu was taken to a nondescript private house somewhere in Nairobi and chained to the floor. He was systematically beaten and tortured to the point where he repeatedly fainted. His abductors used water to revive him.
“Throughout the torture and beatings, they hurled taunts and derogatory comments at Nnamdi Kanu including calling him “terrorist Jew Biafran.” To prevent screaming that could alter third parties, Nnamdi Kanu’s abductors tied cloth over his mouth and nose which made breathing problematic. He remained chained to the floor for eight (8) days and denied ordinary toilet or bathing facilities. He survived on bread and water once a day.
“Mr. Kanu’s abductors spoke English. They repeatedly referenced a “chief of police” and “Nigerian High Commissioner.” They did not care that Nnamdi Kanu was a British citizen and entered Kenya on a British passport. Their maltreatment and torture caused Nnamdi Kanu external and internal injuries and engendered fear that he would die chained to the floor. On the eighth day, Nnamdi Kanu’s abductors drove him to the tarmac of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and delivered him to Nigerian security officials.
“They forced him into a private jet that departed around noon on June 27, 2021, and landed in Abuja, Nigeria, that evening. Upon arrival, Nnamdi Kanu was detained at the headquarters of Nigeria’s secret police known as State Security Services (SSS). The first night there, he was required to sleep in the floor with bright electric lights and extreme heat causing sleep interruptions and mental anguish. On July 1, 2021, the British High Commissioner in Nigeria, acting in accord with Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to which Britain and Nigeria are parties, met with the Attorney General of Nigeria to obtain information about the abduction, extraordinary rendition, and detention of Nnamdi Kanu.”