“The protest is called to draw international support for their cause which includes an end to the genocide being perpetrated by herdsmen in the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria under the guise of open grazing”
“The protesters are drawn from Yoruba Self Determination Groups, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other agitators from the Middle Belt”
The one-million-man freedom march was on Tuesday staged at the United Nations headquarters in New York, United States by the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS)
The protest is called to draw international support for their cause which includes an end to the genocide being perpetrated by herdsmen in the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria under the guise of open grazing.
President Muhammadu Buhari, his Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari and the Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyema among others are attending the the ongoing 76th UN General Assembly.
Persecondnews had reported that the 17 governors from Southern Nigeria met and came up with a communique banning open grazing in their states with effect from Sept. 1.
Virtually all the states have passed the anti-open grazing bill and assented by the governors.
But Meyitti Allah, the herders’ umbrella body in North had kicked against the law and threatened that it was heading to court to challenge it.
The protest which will last till September 21, coincides with the 76th UN General Assembly which got underway on Tuesday, Sept. 14.
The protesters drawn from Yoruba Self Determination Groups, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other agitators from the Middle Belt are also asking the United Nations to supervise referendums in the Middle Belt and southern parts of Nigeria for self-determination.
The separatist campaigners said they rejected the 1999 Nigerian Constitution in its entirety.
Speaking in New York during the first day of the protest, the Chairman of NINAS, Prof. Banji Akintoye, a professor of History, and other leaders said the objective of the one-million-man march is to draw the attention of world leaders to state-sponsored terrorism in some parts of Nigeria.
“The protest is to draw the attention of world leaders to state-sponsored terrorism against the people of the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria,” he said in a statement.
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