By Kolawole Ojebisi
The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador Richard Montgomery, has said the sovereign affairs of another country are not matters the United Kingdom would dabble into.
Montgomery said it’s not within the purview of the United Kingdom to intervene in another sovereign nation’s affairs.
Montgomery stated that Nigeria is a sovereign entity and the UK cannot interfere in her domestic affairs.
The envoy made this disclosure while reacting to a petition purportedly submitted by Sunday Adeyemo who is popularly called ‘Sunday Igboho’ to the UK to look into some issues concerning what Igboho called the right to sovereignty by the Yoruba nation.
Igboho had claimed that he submitted a letter to the UK government on behalf of the leader of the movement agitation, Adebanji Akintoye.
Igboho made this known through a statement released by his personal assistant, Adeola Koiki, on Saturday.
However, in a statement on Tuesday, Montgomery said he was pleased to have met with officials of the ministry of foreign affairs of Nigeria to discuss the matter.
The High commissioner said he reassured the minister that the document was not endorsed by any official body of the UK government or the UK Parliamentary Petitions Committee.
”The delivery merely reflected an established practice of allowing the delivery of letters and petitions to No10.”
The High Commissioner noted that any petition concerning the sovereign affairs of another country is not a matter for the UK government.
“The High Commissioner underscored that this is a matter for the government and legislature of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and noted that similar petitions had been rejected by the UK Parliamentary Petitions Committee and the UK government in the past.
”The High Commissioner agreed to continue liaising with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as needed,” a statement from the ministry of foreign affairs noted.
The statement further reiterated the importance of bilateral relations, investment, security and defence, and home affairs between his country and Nigeria.
The Federal Government had earlier said that the petition submitted by Igboho for a case for a Yoruba nation was an effort in futility.
The Federal stressed that the petition was not endorsed by the UK government.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Eche Abu-Obe, in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, said media reports on the petition ‘were highly misleading’.
