JUST IN: South East with 5 states, a case of marginalization, says Igbo-Biafra nationalists

The Igbo-Biafra Nationalists Movement, on Tuesday described as a case of marginalization where the South East region, has only five states while other Geo-political regions have six and seven states.

The convener of the Igbo-Biafra Nationalists Movement, Mazi Uche Mefor, stated this to Vanguard while speaking on the issue of marginalization of the zone.

He warned that such situation was enough reason for the region to call for secession as according to international law, which he said condemned “extreme oppression and gross human rights violations” that recognises to rights to secession.

According to the Pro-Biafra group, Mefor said: “The Igbo-Biafra Nationalists Movement and the Indigenous People of Igbo Nation for Self-determination make a case for the Igbo-Biafra zone/region’s (South-East region) right or justification for a possible (remedial) secession from Nigeria in the face of unresolved injustice against the South-Easterners which is elaborated upon in the following key points:

“Gross Human Rights Violations: The Igbo-Biafra Nationalists argue that Nigeria has systematically violated the human rights of the Igbo population. Documented cases of discrimination, violence, and marginalization against the South-East, predominantly Igbo communities provide a basis for their assertion. International law increasingly recognises the right of groups to secession (if they are willing and able to do so) in situations of extreme oppression and gross human rights violations. The case of the Biafran people, particularly during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970), is often cited as an instance of severe human rights abuses, including alleged genocidal acts against the Igbo people.”

“If such violations continue or remain unresolved as it is presently in Nigeria (albeit in a subtle but more systematic application of the structural apartheid system), short-changing the South-East with fewer states (5 states for the South-East zone as against 6 and 7 states for other zones or regions); and in other forms of state-sponsored discriminatory policies against the South-East, they inevitably form a basis for secession under the principle of remedial secession(as alluded obiter to by ICJ in the Kosovo case, made reference to by the African Commission in the case of Katanga vs Zaire, and the UK supreme court in the case of the Scottish National Party on Scottish independence) when the state (in this case, Nigeria) fails to protect a section its citizens(the South-East in this instance) or is the perpetrator of such violations,” he said.