Two prominent Igbo groups in the United States – the American Veterans of Igbo Descent (AVID) and Rising Sun & Ambassadors for Self Defence (RSASD) – have visited the Capitol Hill (the seat of the US government) in Washington DC to push for the release of detained Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

In a statement yesterday, AVID President, Sylvester Onyia, said the delegation was at the Capitol Hill to sensitise the US Congress to Kanu’s plight in detention.

He said they also informed the Congress about the rising violation of human rights, ethnic cleansing and religious atrocities perpetrated in Nigeria by those bent on dispossessing the indigenous people of their ancestral lands.

The group decried the barbaric activities of the killer herdsmen and bandits slaughtering indigenous Nigerians, mostly Christians “while the government has failed to protect the hapless people”.

It recalled the killing of 27 Biafra agitators celebrating the inauguration of President Donald Trump in 2017 by security officials in Port Harcourt, and demanded US action. Onyia said: “We are here to bring our concerns to the American folks that Kanu needs to be released now.

“He is unjustly incarcerated. We have told President Bola Tinubu, just as we told then-President Muhammadu Buhari, who arrested him, to release him because he didn’t do anything to anybody.”

He added: “We are asking the US Government to look into the matter because it was democracy that was being celebrated, and those innocent youths were slaughtered by the Nigerian security personnel as chickens.”

The group urged South East governors to prioritise the protection of their people by ensuring the establishment of vigilance groups in every community.

Kanu was first arrested on October 18, 2015 by Department of State Services (DSS) operatives from his hotel room in Ikeja and has largely been held ever since.