Dear Mr. Zuckerberg:
I represent the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its leader Nnamdi Kanu. For more than a century, Biafrans have been denied their international law right to self-determination, i.e., government by the consent of the governed, successively by the United Kingdom and the radical Fulani-controlled Government of Nigeria. IPOB’s ongoing campaign for self-determination through a United Nations conducted referendum is protected free speech and association under international law.
I am aware of the Nigerian government’s high decibel clamor for Facebook to ban IPOB and its members from the social media platform for allegedly inciting violence. The clamor is predicated on the Nigerian government’s proscription of IPOB as a terrorist organization in September 2017. The whole story is more revealing.
The proscription flouted due process. IPOB was denied notice and an opportunity to respond. The proscription was the fact-free ipse dixit of Nigerian President Muhammdu Buhari. Despite Nigeria’s hectoring for more than four years, no other country in the world has proscribed IPOB, including the United States and the UK. Indeed, five human rights experts of the United Nations Human Rights Council wrote President Buhari in October 2020, asking for evidence that IPOB was complicit in terrorism. They were ignored. Meanwhile, President Buhari threatened a reprise of the 1967-1970 genocide of Biafrans if IPOB did not surrender their right to self- determination under Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and otherwise.
Accordingly, I am respectfully requesting that Facebook rebuke the Fulani-controlled Government of Nigeria for seeking censorship of IPOB’s free speech. Facebook should also consider banning the Government of Nigeria as a criminal enterprise featuring genocide and crimes against humanity against Biafrans and other ethnic or political groups. The incriminating evidence is voluminous and will be supplied on request.
Sincerely,
/s/Bruce Fein
Bruce Fein
International counsel and spokesman for Nnamdi Kanu