Ahead of Friday’s Grand Finale of the Million-Man Freedom March by the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self- Determination (NINAS), holding opposite the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York, all the indigenous people of the South and Middle-Belt in the United States and Canada have been urged to troop out in their large number to demonstrate and expose before the world, the rape of their ancestral lands and hijack of the assets and sovereignty by the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration.
NINAS is the umbrella body for Self-Determination groups in the South and Middle Belt of Nigeria with Ilana Omo Oodua representing the Yoruba Land, Lower Niger Congress representing the South-South and South-East and Middle-Belt Renaissance Movement representing the Middle Belt Region.
This was just as the coalition led by Prof Banji Akintoye alleged that unnamed agents of the Nigerian Government had started hiring black foreigners living in the USA with $500 per head to stage a pro-Buhari and One Nigeria March opposite the UN Headquarters same day, where President Buhari will be addressing the 76th Session of the General Assembly.
Akintoye made the call, on Thursday, in a statement made available to newsmen by NINAS Director of Public Communications, Mr Maxwell Adeleye, but vowed that the will of the people shall prevail no matter how the Nigerian Government tried to scuttle the NINAS Grand Finale March.
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“All the people of the South and Middle-Belt in the United States and Canada are urged to troop out in their large number to be present on Friday 24th September 2021 opposite the United Nations Headquarters in New York as we demonstrate and expose before the world, the rape of our ancestral lands and hijack of our assets and sovereignty by the Fulani-Controlled Nigerian Government,” Akintoye said.
The elder statesman said the Grand March scheduled for Friday in New York shall be historic, hence, the Nigerian government was jittery, reiterating series of demands that NINAS would make to the international organization, including the need to conduct a regional referendum so that the indigenous people can decide on their nationhood, pronounce the 1999 Constitution as a fraud, while declaring a Miyetti Allah, a Fulani militia group, a terrorist organisation, “having openly taken responsibility for series of genocide in the South and Middle-Belt Regions.”
Prof. Akintoye, while insisting that the rally would go on as scheduled as NINAS led by him refused to be rattled or intimidated, declared that no oppressor had ever triumphed against the collective will of the people.
According to him, the people are the government and power belongs to them, promising that the March shall be peoples centred and be peaceful as usual, even as he urged the Nigerian mainstream media and International Media that had been covering the March to remain resolute and stand by the truth.
It would be recalled that NINAS had staged what it tagged: “Million-Man Freedom March” on 14th and 15th September opposite the UN Headquarters in New York to show before the world, the crimes against humanity, attacks on press freedom, free speech and other criminalities allegedly being aided by the President Buhari- led government.
NINAS, which described the 1999 Constitution as a fraud against the people of South and Middle-Belt, having been “enacted without the consent of the people,” demanded the conduct of a regional referendum so that the indigenous people can decide on their nationhood, among others.
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