Declare IPOB terror outfi t, Northern youths petition UN

By Bode Olagoke Abuja

Th e Coalition of Northern Group, said it has sent a petition to the United Nations headquarters in New York, urging it to invoke the relevant statutes to which Nigeria is a signatory, and pronounce the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, as being terror inclined.

Th e Northern group also demanded that UN should intervene by initiating “processes of fair and peaceful referendum as the only option to fi nally settle the Biafra issue.” Th e group had, earlier in Kaduna, given an ultimatum to the Igbo living in all parts of the North to vacate, a call that generated some tension within and outside the country. Addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, Ambassador Shettima Yerima, who spoke on behalf of the coalition, alleged that Kanu, the IPOB leader, “has fi nally crossed the boundaries of Nigerian laws and has blatantly breached international laws that specifi cally frown on the use of terror to achieve a goal.”

Th e 20-page petition dated July 12, 2017, titled: “Request for urgent intervention brought pursuant to the UN declaration on minorities; European framework convention; UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007 in resolution 61/295.” Th e youth group described as peak of insurgency, a statement credited to Kanu that he would order former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his entire family killed. While commending the eff orts of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and other regional leaders toward ensuring lasting peace and stability in the country, Shettima claimed that Kanu and IPOB remained undaunted and “even intensifi ed their violent divisive campaign which is the main bone of contention.

” Th ey, however, demanded that “the UN invokes the relevant statutes to which Nigeria is a signatory to pronounce Kanu and IPOB as terror outfi t proscribe their activities and initiate criminal actions against them.” “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 issue, we urged the UN to intervene by initiating processes for a peaceful referendum as the only option to fi nally settle the Biafra issue.

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