A bill currently before the United States Senate would require the Secretary of State to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, impose targeted sanctions on named Nigerian officials, and freeze assets held anywhere in the global financial system, including in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the European Union.
Senate Bill 2747, titled the Nigerian Religious Freedom Accountability Act, was introduced by Senator Ted Cruz and co-sponsored by Senator James Langford, Republican of Oklahoma, in the 119th Congress. It has not yet passed into law.
Franc Utoo, a Nigerian-American lawyer and policy researcher based in Oklahoma, has been briefing US congressional offices on the bill and confirmed to Africentra that he has a scheduled meeting with Senator Langford to advance its passage. Utoo is a citizen of Benue State and a native of Yelewata, a community where he says more than 200 people were killed in attacks by Fulani armed groups. He has been working directly with members of the US Congress on the issue of Christian persecution in Nigeria.
