Biafra: UN invites group to June meeting
■ We’ll request recognition, says Dozie
From DAVID ONWUCHEKWA, Nnewi
Supreme Council of the Elders of Indigenous People
of Biafra has received an invitation from the United
Nations (UN) to attend one of its meetings in New
York in June, the first invitation to such a meeting
since the Biafran pressure group came into
existence.
Deputy Chairman of the organisation, Dr. Dozie
Ikedife, disclosed this to Daily Sun in Nnewi at the
weekend. He said a delegation of the pro- Biafrans
would be leaving Nigeria for the June meeting as
soon as the group raised logistics for the trip.
Asked what request the group would make at the UN,
he said: “We have no other request than the
recognition of Biafra, recognition that we exist,
recognition that we have the right to be given the
opportunity for self-determination, that the
Indigenous People of Biafra have the right for self-
determination, which Nigeria should allow to take
place.”
He said in December 2014, the organisation sent a
delegation to Nairobi, Kenya at the invitation of the
African Union (AU) to attend its Economic, Social and
Cultural Council meeting.
Ikedife insisted that the group would continue to pur­
sue its right for self-determination without breaching
any municipal or international law.
“The only setback, which can discourage us, is lack of
money to finance the project. You know
dissemination of information is not cheap. We have a
radio station called Voice of Biafra. We also have
difficulty in financing it because we think the people
we are fighting for will appreciate the effort, but they
have not bought into the idea of supporting the
movement,” he said.
He assured that the suit for self-determination filed
by one of the arms of of the organisation, Billie
Human Rights Initiative, against the Federal
Government at the Federal High Court, Owerri, would
soon continue now that judiciary workers had called
off their strike.
Culled from- sunnewsonline