SAN FRANCISCO, August 29, (THEWILL) –
Igbo leaders under the auspices of Alaigbo Development Foundation, ADF, on Monday dragged Arewa youths, their sponsors including officials of governments in some Northern states to the International Criminal Court, ICC, at the Hague and the Nigerian Courts over the quit notice issued Igbo residing in the northern part of the country.
The Igbo leaders held that the legal action was aimed at piling judicial pressure to restrain Arewa youths, their sponsors and supporters including officials of Northern governments from executing their threat of quit notice and take-over of properties owned by Igbo in northern states planned for 1st October, but now suspended.
In a statement issued in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi capital, and signed by its President, Prof. Uzodinma Nwala; Secretary, Prof. Nath Aniekwu; Chairman, Media and Publicity Bureau, Chief Abia Onyike, ADF warned that any attack on any Igboman over the threat by the Arewa youths will be interpreted as an announcement for the final dissolution of the federation.
According to the statement, “ADF is assuring all that never again will any Igbo or Biafran property be declared abandoned or confiscated by an authority or group of persons in any part of the country. ADF and Ndigbo will fight that in accordance with international laws and conventions.
“ADF insists that the only thing that will convince Ndigbo and Biafrans that the federal government is genuinely interested in protecting our lives and property in the North is the immediate enactment of a law by the National Assembly prohibiting confiscation or declaration as abandoned, properties of Ndigbo or any Nigerian for that matter in any part of the federation before 1st October 2017.
“ADF stands for a peacefully re-negotiated federation based on the principles of self-determination, truth, justice, equity and equality or a peaceful dissolution of Nigeria if the above is not feasible. This is a matter of extreme urgency.
“ADF resolves to take urgent legal action at the international criminal court at the Hague and the Nigeria courts to pile judicial pressure to restrain the Arewa youths, their sponsors and supporters including officials of governments in the Northern Sharia states from executing their threat of Quit Notice and take over of properties owned by Ndigbo in the Arewa territories planned for 1st October, 2017.”
Meanwhile, the Igbo Peoples Congress, IPC, and the Igbo Aborigines have demanded an unreserved apology from the Arewa youths to Igbos for the unconstitutional quit notice they gave in the North, saying this should follow their recent withdrawal of the obnoxious notice.
Noting that the quit notice was the worst thing that has happened in Nigeria since the end of the civil war, the groups congratulated the Vice President, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Middle belt, Niger Delta, Afenifere, Yoruba leaders and men with good conscience in Arewa land, who stood against the eviction notice.
Spokesmen of the groups, Pastor Okey Colbert and Mazi Obisike Chidi, who made this known, hoped that the quit notice will never again happen in any part of Nigeria, no matter the provocations.
They requested the Coalition of Northern Youths, CNY, which had issued the quit notice, to make efforts to assist Nigerian soldiers fighting the Boko Haram insurgents in the North East to apprehend Abubakar Shekau and his top commanders who are forcefully
trying to foister an Islamic Republic in Nigeria.
Igbo Peoples Congress, IPC, and the Igbo Aborigines equally said the Arewa youths should also make effort to tackle the Almajiri issue which, they said, past rulers in the North used in keeping the talakawas eternally poor.
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