From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
Movement For The Actualization Of The Sovereign State Of Biafra (MASSOB) in Melbourne Australia has praised the Global Igbo Alliance (GIA), for condemning statements made by Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) against UN order for the release of Nnamdi Kanu.
The United Nations (UN) Working Group on Human Rights and Arbitrary Detention, had directed the Nigerian government to immediately and unconditionally release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from unlawful detention and to pay him adequate compensation for flagrant violation of his human rights.
They also indicted the Kenyan and the Nigerian Governments for their criminal conduct in the unlawful abduction, torture, rendition, and continued detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra.
However, the Coalition of Northern Groups, through its spokesman, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman while speaking in Abuja, urged the UN to immediately withdraw its demand for Kanu’s unconditional release from the unlawful custody of the Nigerian authorities.
They asked the Nigerian Government to resist and reject the UN directives and falsely suggested that IPOB and Kanu were responsible for the ongoing violence all over Nigeria.
But in a statement on Friday, the spokesman of MASSOB in Australia,i Arinze Omeje said the group joins Global Igbo Alliance (GIA) to note that for CNG to overlook the mayhem and wanton killing of Nigerians by Fulani herdsmen terrorists, Boko Haram, ISWAP, and other jihadist terrorist groups in Northern Nigeria puts them in a highly compromised position, and casts doubt on the genuineness of their motive and the disgraceful position they took on this matter.
Part of the statement reads: “We are aware that the CNG is very antagonistic of IPOB, a self-determination movement, while being unapologetically sympathetic towards jihadist terrorist groups in Northern Nigeria that are perpetrating terrorist acts all over Nigeria.
“MASSOB agrees with Global Igbo Alliance, that the right to self-determination is a basic human right enshrined in international law, namely, in Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, of which Nigeria is a signatory.
“The laws of Nigerian recognise the right to self-determination. The Nigerian National Assembly ratified and domesticated The African Charter on Human & Peoples Right in 1983, and Article 20, Cap A (9) Laws of Federation of Nigeria (2004) state that “All Oppressed peoples have the right for self-determination and to free themselves from the bonds of oppression”.
“Section 12 of Decree Number 24 Constitution of Nigeria 1999, accords recognition to international laws that have been ratified by Nigeria. These include the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous peoples, Charter of the United Nations, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, and relevant United Nations Instruments, Treaties and Conventions. All actions undertaken by Kanu and IPOB in respect of Biafra restoration are in accord with these international and local laws.