SAN FRANCISCO, September 18, (THEWILL) – The Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Worldwide says it is unjustifiable for governors of the five South-Eastern states to proscribe activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, when the herdsmen who have massacred “thousands of unarmed Nigerians” across the country have not been declared terrorists.
The group also faulted the Nigerian military for branding IPOB as a terrorist organisation, asserting that it was “unconstitutional as it is targeted to silence right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association”.
In a statement issued on Sunday in Benin, Edo State by its President, Mr. Roland Pereotubo, the apex Ijaw youth body maintained that the governors’ action was “more of cowardice as it cannot stop the agitation in the region”.
The IYC advised the federal government to jettison its plan to re-arrest the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, pointing out that the only solution to the current impasse in the South-East is to engage Kanu in the negotiation table.
According to the statement, “Their (South-East governors) rash and brazen action is even at variance with international treaties empowering indigenous people to pursue self-determination through non-violence.
“IPOB members are only fighting for their rights through non-violence means. They felt marginalised, segregated and dejected. Oppression and injustice are the reasons why they are fighting for their freedom.
“The non-violence approach they took is within the ambit of international treaties, especially the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, which have empowered indigenous people in any of the member countries, who feel oppressed, to seek for freedom. These treaties are being codified in our domestic laws.
“The solution to IPOB, MASSOB and BIM’s separatists struggle in the South-East as well as the militants’ agitations in the Niger Delta region is through dialogue as no amount of proscription of these armless associations will cow the people into submitting their agitations to the oppressors.”
IYC categorically called on the South-East governors to prevail on the Federal Government to address issues of lopsided appointments and political marginalisation of the geopolitical zone.
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