Kaylee A. Otterbacher, 27, of the Mercury Public Affairs LLC, is the head of the team working for the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the United States to lobby the US government on policy as well as promoting anti-Nigeria government activities.
According to an agreement paper submitted to the US Department of Justice, Washington DC 20530, dated 12/13/2019 and sighted by our correspondent, the lobbyists, who also work for Libya, Russia and China were engaged to provide strategic consulting services, government relations, and public affairs, including outreach to and engagement with relevant third-party organizations on issues of importance to Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB.
IPOB, an organization that has been proscribed, was established by Kanu to push for the realization of the Biafra Nation. In the last few years IPOB and its founder have been accused of being behind many illegal activities that have resorted in loss of lives and properties, especially in the Southern part of the country.
As a result of the confrontational posture of Kanu and his group’s undue influence, many Nigerians often argue that powerful foreign intelligence agencies could be behind them.
However, as found out by ACJ, the US based Mercury Public Affairs LLC, was hired in 2019 for 85,000USD monthly to help IPOB seek global endorsement, sympathy as well as carrying out anti-Nigerian campaigns across the world. The agency is said to have succeeded in connecting the illegal organization to many foreign bodies and powerful individuals who have all agreed to demystify Nigeria government and its activities.
For instance, in a report promoted by Mercury Public Affairs LLC in the PRNewswire on March 25, 2020, the foreign agent had on that day guided IPOB and Kanu to petition the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions on human rights abuses in its official report on Nigeria.
According to the report, the petition chronicled human rights abuses perpetrated against Biafrans in Nigeria to Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions at the United Nations.
Ms. Callamard had visited Nigeria in 2019 to investigate reports of violence and injustice against innocent Nigerians.
The submission to the UN further documents 12 incidents in which Biafrans were subject to severe human rights abuses, ranging from indiscriminate arrests to mass executions, carried out by Nigerian military, police and security forces.
An interest group that strongly favours a specific policy, but is unable to convince decision makers of the policy’s merits, may try to have an indirect impact on decision-making by mobilising and shaping public opinion.
