Group plans campaign against infringement of rights, cultural values of FCT original owners

 

By Michael Nnebife

 A nongovernmental organisation, Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA), has received N55 million grant from the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education and the MacArthur Foundation, to launch into  an aggressive campaign against all forms of infringement of the fundamental human rights of the original inhabitants of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

 The Executive Director of CTA, Faith Nwadishi, made this known in a press release issued to the press by the Programme Manager of the organisation, Mr Macdonald, Ekemezie.

 According to the CTA director, the campaign project, which would be carried out through drama and arts forms, aims at promoting the cultural values and the fundamental human rights of the original inhabitants of the FCT.

 Nwadishi argued, “for decades, the OIs (original inhabitants) of the FCT have faced several forms of infringement of their rights, which have manifested in the form of institutionalized discrimination, disenfranchisement and outright marginalization ...”.

 She explained, “CTA would carry out the project via well thought out activities that will enable existing inhabitant efforts to revamp the dying cultural values, treasures and repositories as well as enhancing the capacity of the FCT OIs to negotiate good community development agreements with mining companies to address negative environmental impacts and the destruction of cultural sites due to mining activities”.

 The CTA boss, who noted with optimism that the project would bring about overall improvement of access to environmental services delivery by mining companies and government agencies as well as the sociocultural rights of the FCT OIs, expressed the excitement and readiness of her organisation to deliver on the project. 

 She thanked the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education and the MacArthur Foundation, for their support to CTA.