Notice Of Quit: Igbo group drags Arewa youths, others to ICC

An Igbo group, the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF), has said that it would drag the leadership of Arewa Youths to the International Criminal Court [ICC], Hague, and a Nigerian court, to answer questions bothering on its quit notice to the Igbo living in the North.

Also to be included in the proposed suit were their sponsors including undisclosed top government officials in the northern sharia states.

According to the group, the legal action was aimed at mounting judicial pressure to restrain Arewa youths, their sponsors and supporters including officials of the Northern governments, from executing their threat of quit notice and takeover of properties owned by Ndigbo in the Arewa territories planned for October 1 this year.

In a statement issued to newsmen, in Abakaliki, and signed by its President, Prof.

Uzodinma Nwala, Secretary, Prof. Nath Aniekwu and Chairman, Media and Publicity Bureau, Chief Abia Onyike, the Igbo leaders warned that any attack on any Igbo man linked to the threat by Arewa groups would be interpreted by the Igbo as an announcement for the final dissolution of the federation.

The statement read in part: “ADF is assuring all that never again will any Igbo or Biafran property be declared abandoned or confiscated by any authority or group of persons in any part of the country. ADF and Ndigbo will fight that in accordance with international laws and conventions.

“ADF insists that the only thing that will convince Ndigbo and Biafrans that the federal government is genuinely interested in protecting our lives and property in the North is the immediate enactment of a law by the National Assembly prohibiting confiscation or declaration as abandoned, properties of Ndigbo or any Nigerian for that matter in any part of the federation before 1st October 2017.

“ADF stands for a peacefully re-negotiated federation based on the principles of self-determination, truth, justice, equity and equality or a peaceful dissolution of Nigeria if the above is not feasible. This is a matter of extreme urgency.

“ADF resolves to take urgent legal action at the International Criminal Court at the Hague and the Nigeria courts to pile judicial pressure to restrain the Arewa youths, their sponsors and supporters including officials of governments in the Northern Sharia states from executing their threat of Quit Notice and takeover of properties owned by Ndigbo in the Arewa territories planned for 1st October, 2017.”