Northern groups file suit seeking exit of Igbo from Nigeria

The Coalition of Northern Groups has filed a case asking the court to compel the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives to hasten the exit of the southeastern region out of Nigeria.

They pleaded that this should be done before the conclusion of the ongoing amendment of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the secession request was contained in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/538/2021 instituted by the group of elders and politicians from the North, led by Nastura Shariff, Balarabe Rufa’i, Abdul-Aziz Sulaiman and Aminu Adam.

In the suit, they said that allowing the Igbo to secede would end violence and destruction in the South-East. They also explained that this would stop the repeat of the 1967-1970 Civil War in Nigeria that led to wanton destruction of lives and property.

The groups also said this would put an end to the agitations by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra led by Nnamdi Kanu.

They prayed for, among others, a declaration that combined effect of the provisions of Section 4 of the Nigerian Constitution and Articles 1, 2, and 20 (1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act 2004, “is empowered to set in motion a framework for a referendum to allow the south-eastern region of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to decide on their bid for self-determination.”

They also urged the court to order the second, third and fourth defendants (the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly) “to provide a framework that will pave way for the self-determination of the south-eastern states so as to leave the geographical entity called Nigeria before any further step is taken to further amend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can be further amended at any time after the question of self-determination must have been resolved by Nigerians,” the plaintiffs said.