{"id":70664,"date":"2025-07-15T18:25:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T18:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=70664"},"modified":"2025-07-15T18:25:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T18:25:22","slug":"two-million-abuja-indigenes-face-extinction-says-chriced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/07\/15\/two-million-abuja-indigenes-face-extinction-says-chriced\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Million Abuja Indigenes Face Extinction, Says CHRICED"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Huldah Shado<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), has raised alarm that more than two million indigenes of Nigeria\u2019s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, are on the brink of extinction due to systemic exclusion, land dispossession, political marginalization, and cultural erasure.<\/p>\n<p>The warning was issued on Monday during the 18th Session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Ibrahim Zikirullahi, Executive Director of CHRICED, presented a statement detailing the plight of Abuja\u2019s Original Inhabitants (OIs), comprising nine tribes and 17 chiefdoms who, he said, are being pushed to the margins of existence.<\/p>\n<p>Backed by a delegation of six and support from the MacArthur Foundation, CHRICED brought international attention to what it described as a looming cultural and demographic crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Zikirullahi traced the root of the problem to Military Decree No. 6 of 1976, which stripped the indigenous people of their ancestral lands to make way for the construction of Nigeria\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that despite Supreme Court rulings affirming their rights, successive governments have failed to offer compensation, resettlement, or legal recognition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore than two million indigenous people of the FCT face systemic marginalization and are at risk of being wiped out unless urgent action is taken,\u201d Zikirullahi warned.<\/p>\n<p>He further accused the Nigerian government of violating constitutional provisions and international obligations under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).<\/p>\n<p>CHRICED called on the Expert Mechanism, member states, and stakeholders to pressure Nigeria into upholding its obligations.<\/p>\n<p>It urged for immediate steps to ensure legal recognition of Abuja\u2019s Original Inhabitants, their inclusion in political processes, equitable development, cultural preservation, and respect for indigenous data sovereignty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Huldah Shado &nbsp; The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), has raised alarm that more than two million indigenes of Nigeria\u2019s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, are on the brink of extinction due to systemic exclusion, land dispossession, political marginalization, and cultural erasure. The warning was issued on Monday during the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":70665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuja-reports","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70666,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70664\/revisions\/70666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}