By Chukwudi Nweje

Prof Banji Akintoye, Chairman of Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS), has declared that there is no going back on the one-million-man Freedom March scheduled to hold opposite the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the United States of America from 14th to 24th September 2021.

The protest is meant to demand United Nations supervised referendums in the Middle Belt and southern parts of Nigeria. The group is also demanding an end to the genocide being perpetrated by murderous herdsmen in the name of grazing and to demand the rejection of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria.

In a statement issued by Mr. Maxwell Adeleye, Communications Manager NINAS, Monday, NINAS said it will demand for a United Nations supervised referendum in the Middle Belt and southern Nigeria for the people to decide on what they want for their nationhood.

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He said, “We the Indigenous people now say enough is enough. Therefore, as the World Leaders are meeting for the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, we want to use the opportunity to demand a United Nations supervised referendum in our regions so that the indigenous people can decide on what they want for their nationhood. First, the fraudulent 1999 Constitution must go down. And this should happen before the 2023 General Elections. The South and Middle-Belt totally reject the illegitimate and imposed 1999 Nigerian Constitution that hijacks our self-determination and assets. We want an end to the ethno-religious killings in Nigeria.”
It also accused the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Federal Government of engaging in terrorism.

He further said, “What is happening today in Nigeria is State-sponsored terrorism. The herdsmen you see in the South and Middle-Belt today are different from the nomadic herdsmen we grew up to know. The current ones are imported members of ISIS, Al -Qaeda. ISWAP and Boko Haram Terrorists being masqueraded as bandits. The agenda of these government-backed Terrorists killing and maiming our people in the South and Middle-Belt is to take over our ancestral lands for their Fulani people. You see that it is either Buhari is talking about cattle colony today or RUGA tomorrow or grazing reserves the day after. He appreciates the Fulani cows than human dignity. The Fulani people have even said openly on Television that all the land in Nigeria up to the Atlantic Ocean belongs to their great-great-grandfathers. They said the oil in the South belongs to them because the majority of the landmass in Nigeria are in the North.”

It also demanded that the killer herdsmen as well as their umbrella organisation, Miyetti Allah should be declared a terrorist organisation.

“By the grace of God, we shall be demanding from the world leaders to declare Miyetti Allah as a terrorist group. It is dangerous to safety and peace of the South and Middle-Belt people to call Miyetti Allah a trade union, it is a terrorist group supported by the current Federal Government of Nigeria with a mission to overrun the indigenous people”, NINAS said.