From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has demanded immediate suspension of the 1999 Constitution review to enable the Federal Government organise a referendum for those agitating for Biafra Republic.
CNG also appealed to the government to invite the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU) and Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) to initiate the process of self-determination for Biafran agitators in line with international conventions.
Spokesperson for the group, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, at a press conference in Abuja, yesterday, said there was no need reviewing the 1999 Constitution when a section of the country was agitating to pull out.
Suleiman said the group took the decision to prevent another civil war sequel to the spate of killings and destruction public infrastructure in the South East.
“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 that NASS organise 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 Yar’Adua, unfit.
“We demand NASSS to prevail on the Federal Government to invite the United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS, to initiate the process of self-determination to mandate Biafrans out of the Nigerian union by leveraging on the several relevant international treaties and conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory.”
Suleiman said the North had continued to bear the brunt of violent agitations for secession with equanimity, stoical calm and resignation. He, therefore, urged the North to “remain the bulwark of respect, integrity, dignity, decorum, tradition, decency, morality, civilisation, etiquette, good behaviour, politeness, accommodation, and all other positive traits with the assurance that the good will ultimately prevail over evil.”
