From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has called for the immediate suspension of the 1999 constitution review process to be replaced by a referendum that would lead to the actualisation of a Biafra Republic.
CNG also appealed to the government to invite the United Nations, the African Union and Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS), to initiate the process of self-determination to mandate the Biafrans out of the Nigerian union by leveraging on the several relevant international treaties and conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory.
While addressing reporters in Abuja, its spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, maintained that the outcome of the referendum must be irreversible or reconsidered for any other reasons.
‘We demanded the immediate suspension of the ongoing exercise for the review of the 1999 Constitution and to concentrate on the first priority of determining who and what actually constitutes Nigeria as a nation in the present circumstance in which the Igbo, by taking up arms against the Nigerian state for the third time, have foreclosed every hope for the rest of us to continue coexisting with them as one nation.
‘In order to achieve the final separation of the Igbo from the rest of Nigeria, we demanded the NASS to organize a referendum by seeking the cover of the same Doctrine of Necessity invoked by Nigeria’s federal Parliament that paved way for former President Goodluck Jonathan’s takeover by declaring the late President Umaru Musa Yaradua unfit.
‘We demanded NASSS to prevail on the federal government of Nigeria to invite the United Nations as well as the African Union and ECOWAS, to initiate the process of self-determination to mandate the Biafrans out of the Nigerian union by leveraging on the several relevant international treaties and conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory,’ he said.
Sulieman explained that the group took the decision to prevent another civil war sequel to the spate killings and destruction public infrastructure in the South East region.
He claimed that the north had continued to bear the brunt of the violent agitations for secession with equanimity, stoical calm and resignation.
He urged the north to ‘remain the bulwark of respect, integrity, dignity, decorum, tradition, decency, morality, civilization, etiquette, good behaviour, politeness, accommodation, and all other positive traits with the assurance that the good will ultimately prevail over evil.’