News Release: Handshake Across The NIger: What Is The Igbo Taking To The Table?

As preparations reach fever-pitch levels for the January 11, 2018 Event in Enugu tagged “HANDSHAKE ACROSS THE NIGER” where the Yoruba will be coming in their strength to fraternize with Igbo as a part of steps towards closing the chapter of longstanding suspicion-ridden acrimonious relationship between the Yoruba and Igbo in the Nigerian Union of Attrition, the Lower Niger Independence Movement (LONIM) has followed very closely and with a measure of anxiety, what the Igbo side is taking to the HANDSHAKE Table.

LONIM notes that while the Yoruba Position on the Nigerian Question in terms of the minimum conditions for mutual coexistence in the Union had been made abundantly clear to the whole  World in 2017, especially the June 24, 2017 Yoruba National Assembly Declarations and the September 7, 2017 Yoruba Solemn Assembly, the same cannot be said of the Igbo side where there seems to be an unwritten code to evade the making out of an Igbo Position.

It is in this regard that LONIM wishes to alert both the Igbo Delegates to the Enugu Event and the wider Igbo public on whose behalf the HANDSHAKE exercise is being undertaken, to this great anomaly. 

Our findings indicate that the Igbo Organizations championing the Enugu Event are Nzuko Umunna and Ohanaeze Ndigbo. 

LONIM's fears for what might be the real objectives of the Igbo side of the Conveners, came to a new high when a promotional audio made by the Coordinator of Nzuko Umunna was brought to our attention. 

Listening to that audio, there is nothing left to imagination as to the One-Nigeria leaning of Igbo side to the HANDSHAKE Event, in the face of the Self-Determination desires of the Igbo populace.

Accordingly, LONIM categorically demands of Nzuko Umunna, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and whoever else is involved on the Igbo side, that the minimum that should come out of the Enugu HANDSHAKE Event must include:

(1) An unambiguous Statement on the Status of the 1999 Constitution as the basis of Nigeria.

(2) An unambiguous Statement on the 2019 Elections currently being advertised by INEC, since that Election will be surely premised on the obnoxious 1999 Constitution.

(3) An unambiguous Statement on the killing spree by the sponsored Terrorist Fulani Militia which is being deliberately misrepresented by the Federal Government as Farmers/Herdsmen Clash.

LONIM will keep a close eye on what will happen in Enugu and will not hesitate to beam its searchlight on the outcome of the event in a manner that will expose the real objectives of its promoters. This we owe as a duty to the People.

Released by:
The Secretariat Of The Lower Niger Independence Movement(LONIM)