Arewa Youths Ask UN to Hold Referendum on Biafra

Fri, Jul 14, 2017 | By publisher


Political Briefs

MORE than one month after issuing a quit notice to Igbo, to leave the North by October 1, Arewa youths, under the aegis of Coalition of Northern Groups, have called on the United Nations, UN to initiate processes for peaceful referendum.

The groups said the referendum was the only viable option to finally settle the Biafran issue.

In a July 12, 2017, letter addressed to the UN, the groups said since the end of the Civil War, Igbo youths had intermittently continued to demand an independent country.

They accused the Igbo of reopening old wounds, and said the Kaduna declaration was not a call to violence, but, a precaution.

On behalf of the coalition, Shettima Yerima, its coordinator, said: “Notwithstanding efforts by acting President Yemi Osinbajo and responsible regional leaders, Nnamdi Kanu, leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, remains undaunted. Their continued action is a clear signal that they are committed to breaking away from the Nigerian Federation which buttresses our earlier concerns.

“Since it is becoming all the more obvious by the way IPOB and Kanu enjoy massive support from the Igbo back home, that the issue of the drive for Biafra nation is still a boiling one, we urge the UN to intervene by initiating processes for a peaceful referendum as the only option to finally settle the Biafran issue.”

Besides, the Arewa youths asked the UN to declare Kanu and the IPOB terrorists.

Yerima said: “We are calling on the UN to invoke the relevant statuses to which Nigeria is a signatory to pronounce Kanu and IPOB as a terror outfits, proscribe their activities and initiate criminal actions against them.”

Arewa youths, had in June, issued an ultimatum to Igbo to vacate the North within three months.

The call has generated mixed reactions from Nigerians.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, after the declaration, asked security agents to arrest faces behind the declaration. But security agents are yet to arrest the youths, as directed by El-Rufai.

Osinbajo has also held series of meetings with regional leaders as part of moves to douse ethnic tensions.

—  Jul 24, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT

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