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Demand release of Kanu, warns against the arrest of Igboho
A Civil Society Organisation (CSO), the Campaign for Democracy (CD), has declared maximum support for southern governors, saying that all the resolutions reached by them are in the best interest of all Nigerians.
National General Secretary of the group, Pastor Ifeanyi Odili, in a statement made available to The Guardian in Akure, yesterday, said only fairness and true federalism could sustain the indivisibility of Nigeria.
Odili lamented that the people of the southern part of the nation had been tremendously marginalised by the northerners, saying the spirit of federal character was grossly abused in all sectors to the disadvantage of the southerners.
“We have seen excruciating pains, agony, cheating against southern Nigeria by the powerful northern oligarchy. We have seen southern people being pillaged and ran down.
“Federal character has long been dumped by powerful northern brothers at the helms of Nigeria’s affairs. To sustain unity and diversity, and if we must remain as brothers and sisters, the basis for such relationship must be clearly defined,” he said.
The human rights group, which urged the Federal Government to release all the detainees without further delay, including IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, said that it should stop the move to arrest the Yoruba Nation agitator, Mr. Sunday Igboho.
It said such a move and President Buhari’s body language towards incessant killings and abductions in the South were enough invitation to agitations for secession.
ALSO, a former Nigerian Ambassador to the Philippines, Dr. Yemi Farounbi; an Ibadan-based human rights activist and Marxist, Laoye Sanda and Dr. Steve Abioye, yesterday, lauded the southern governors over their decision on some issues affecting the country.
This was contained in a statement made available to The Guardian by the trio in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, under the aegis of Coalition of Yoruba Self-determination Groups.
The trio said: “In as much as our position as self-determination group doesn’t depict secession, we, however, believe the current structure of Nigeria needs to be restructured in a way that each constituent part of Nigeria can be in a position to maximise the use of its resources.
“In other words, we need true federalism based on the return to people’s constitution of the pre-1966 era.”
