By Sadiq Abubakar, Abuja.
Natives of the FCT under the umbrella of the Abuja Original Inhabitants Youth Empowernt Organization (AOIYEO) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the national assembly to go extral mile to apply what it called ‘doctrine of necessity’ in order to enable them participate in governorship and state house of assembly elections like other states of the federation.
The executive director of AOIYEO, Commandant Issac David, who made the call during a media parley with newsmen in Abuja, on Saturday, said the executive and legislative bodies are equal to the states of the federation for the purpose of elections into such offices for the peace, loving and law abiding indigenes of the FCT.
He, however, said that the natives of Abuja, were only people in Nigeria that are subjected to practical application of the federal laws, saying the federal executive /legislative bodies and administrative or executive actions of the federal government by virtue of section 299 (a) (b) 301,302 of the 1999 constitution and the electoral Act as amended were flagrant violation of fundamental right to dignity of persons and freedom to discrimination.
He said no minister has ever been appointed by the president from among the natives, particularly the minister of the FCT who have been non-indigenes since its creation in 1976.
“So it is highly disturbing to see that the Nigerian citizens who are natives of Abuja, are the only because of their place of origin and ethnic backgrounds not accorded privilege and rights particularly that flows from a second tier system of government and dividends of democracy like their counterparts in the country,” he said.
According to him, citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups have been enjoying privileges, right and advantages of the second tier of government as provided by the constitution to the exclusion of the indigenous people of the FCT.
“Therefore, with the foregoing, we are telling the world about this flagrant and total violation of our rights which amounts to a denial of the FCT indigenes right to dignity of their person and freedom from discrimination as enshrined in section 34, 42 of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria as amended and the African Charter on Human and peoples Rights, he added.
Issac, therefore, reiterated that the citizens of Nigeria who are natives of Abuja, are the only people in Nigeria that were subjected to the practical applications of the federal laws.
