Sahara Reporters
President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, among other officials, is travelling to the United States on Thursday ahead of the United Nations General Assembly billed to hold by September 14.
SaharaReporters learnt that part of the mandate of the top government officials was to try to infiltrate the ranks of Nigeria’s self-determination groups, which earlier announced that they would storm the UN Assembly with demands for referendum.
A top source disclosed to SaharaReporters that while Buhari would be attending the UN Assembly, the entourage led by Gambari, who is a diplomat and former top UN official, was sent ahead to weaken the strengths of the agitation groups before the President’s arrival.
“The UN programme is starting September 18. The Chief of Staff is leaving for USA tomorrow (Thursday) with some people working with him, including his personal Assistant, Luqman Bosun Emiola. No one knows when they will be back but they are not supposed to have any business with the President’s trip.
“Buhari will be attending the UN General Assembly but the Chief of Staff already left,” the source added.
SaharaReporters had on August 11 reported that agitation groups in the country under the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination said they would hold a one million march at the UN Headquarters in New York, to reiterate the demand for a referendum on self-determination and abolition of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
NINAS is an umbrella body of self-determination movements in the South-South, South-East, Middle Belt and South-West (Ilana Omo Oodua).
The one million march is scheduled to hold between September 14 and 21, 2021 when the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly would hold in the United States.
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