The United States Chapter of the Nigerians in Diaspora Monitoring Group (NDMG) has reacted to the emerging report that Fein & DelValle PLLC, an American law firm is gathering evidence to charge President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for proscribing the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The group asked the firm to channel its energy to investigate former United States president, George Bush and Barack Obama and leave Nigeria alone.
Pasca Ogwola, Coordinator, USA/Canada, NDMG said it was disheartening that some people were unhappy over the proscription of IPOB and its activities.
Ogwola said the lawyer was exploring how to make money out of the defunct Biafra republic.
His statement reads in full:
The United States Chapter of the Nigerians in Diaspora Monitoring Group (NDMG) has learnt with disappointment that some Nigerians are being misled by news that Fein & DelValle PLLC, an American law firm, is gathering evidence to charge President Muhammadu Buhari and Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for successfully containing the terrorist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB).
The claims made by one of the lawyers for the firm, Bruce E. Fein, are ordinarily laughable but for the fact that they have all the makings of a scheme meant to con the unwary ones among our brothers of Igbo extraction out of their hard earned money while setting up our younger ones up for life threatening confrontations with law enforcement agencies. The lawyer is exploring how to make money out of the defunct Biafra republic and has no cares in world how this affect the local population who he has apparently dismissed as collateral damage in his quest to get rich.
Fein apparently lied to the inconspicuous audience he addressed at Chicago State University, USA earlier this month by creating the impression that there is a case against the Nigerian government and military before the ICC. It was a classical American Lawyer trick to con money out of unsuspecting people and this was adequately exposed when he said “litigation moves slowly. Patience, unity, and FINANCIAL support are indispensable to success.”
Fein’s fund raising strategy is worryingly similar to the one adopted by the leader of the terrorist group, Nnamdi Kanu, who solicited for funds to buy weapons at the 2015 World Igbo Congress in the United States. In both instances, diasporas of Igbo extraction were targeted to part with their money for private causes packaged to appear like geo-ethnic interests.
The Nigerians in Diaspora Monitoring Group (NDMG) condemns Bruce E. Fein and Fein & DelValle PLLC in very strong terms for this attempt to promote disaffection in Nigeria while scheming to defraud diaspora citizens. We advise anyone that has given money to Fein to immediately approach the United States Financial Fraud Enforcement Taskforce to report that they have been scammed.
We urge Bruce E. Fein to seek professional help to manage what ails him so that he can stop putting others at risk with his warped thinking. Where he insists he does not need professional intervention, we advise him to focus his efforts at helping victims that abound in the US where ethnic minorities and persons of colour are at risk of being killed by policemen for the least infractions conceivable.
Fein could also better use his time documenting and collecting evidence of the thousands of renditions, torture and extra-judicial executions authorized by the Obama administration, George Bush before him and even the Trump administration under the guise of going after international terrorists. These are the cases he can successfully take to the ICC and not Nigeria that had to battle the odds to contain the terrorist threats posed by IPoB.
If at any point in time Fein decides to feed his fantasy about Nigeria, he is welcome to go after IPoB members, who murdered and buried people in shallow graves. They will make good candidates for his planned excursion to the ICC.
The Nigerian judiciary recognizes the risk posed by this group and appropriately designated IPOB as a terrorist organization, which would make the work of ICC easier as it will not be difficult to recognize that Fein and his co-traveller are out to waste the its time.
We appeal that this commitment to protect citizens must be sustained especially at this time of the year when the military usually stage Operation Python Dance in the south-east of the country. This year’s edition should include in its objective the flushing out of any terrorists that might have infiltrated the space since the last exercise.
