Professor Banji Akintoye on Thursday alleged that the Nigerian government was hiring black foreigners in the United States with $500 per person to stage a Pro-Buhari protest and One Nigeria March opposite the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Friday.
Akintoye said the alleged move by the Nigerian government was to counter his group, Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS), grand finale Million-Man Freedom March protest at the UN headquarters in New York.
Akintoye, in a statement made available to newsmen through the NINAS Director of Public Communications, Mr. Maxwell Adeleye, on Friday, said “no matter how the Nigerian Government try to scuttle the NINAS Grand March, the will of the people shall prevail.”
He accused an unnamed top Nigerian government official and a popular Lagos journalist of currently been used by the government to hire foreigners “to masquerade as Pro-One Nigeria Protesters to counter NINAS in New York on Friday.”
Akintoye described the government agents as “Wilfredo Pareto and Genato Mosca’s Elitist Lions and NINAS Prosters as the Foxes,” saying “irrespective of the material and financial superiorities of these Lions, there’s no way they can defeat United Foxes in a democracy.”
FirstNews had reported that NINAS headed by Prof Akintoye had staged a “Million-Man Freedom March” on 14th and 15th of September opposite the United Nations Headquarters.
The grand finale of the NINAS Million-Man Freedom March is expected to hold on Friday September 24, when President Muhammad Buhari would be addressing the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The statement by Akintoye read, “The Friday Grand March in New York shall be historic, hence, the Nigerian government is jittery. The Ring Leader of Government Officials from Kwara State and a top Lagos Journalist are now in New York to start hiring black people who will pretend as Nigerians to stage a Pro-Buhari and One Nigeria Protest to counter NINAS on Friday.
“But we refuse to be rattled. We shall not be intimidated. No Oppressor has ever triumphed against the collective will of the people. The people are the government and power belongs to the people. The people make the constitution. The sovereignty belongs to the people. Our own strength lies in the hands of the people. Therefore, Our march shall be people’s centered. It shall be peaceful as usual.”
NINAS is the umbrella body for self-determination Groups in the South and Middle-Belt of Nigeria with Ilana Omo Oodua representing the Yoruba Land, Lower Niger Congress representing the South South and South East and Middle-Belt Renaissance Movement representing the Middle Belt Region.
The group has been describing the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as a fraud against the people of South and Middle-Belt, saying,“it was enacted without the consent of the people”.
NINAS is also demanding from the United Nations to declare Miyetti Allah as a Terrorist Organisation, alleging that it has openly taken responsibility for series of genocide in the South and Middle-Belt regions.