The Igbo Women Assembly, a pressure group, has vowed to drag the Lagos government to court over its legislation for the exclusive teaching of the Yoruba language in state-owned schools.

IWA national president Nneka Chimezie disclosed this at a news briefing in Umuahia on Thursday.

IWA is affiliated with Ohanaeze Ndigbo, an apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation.

Ms Chimezie said the group was worried over such legislation in a cosmopolitan state as Lagos.

According to her, such a law is improper because the government knows Lagos harbours many other tribes.

“They should make it open: Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba – should be taught,” she said.

The IWA president, however, hailed the Yoruba for preserving their language.

She called on the Igbo sons and daughters to join IWA in the campaign to stop the Igbo language from going into extinction.

She said the group would organise an event to celebrate the Igbo Language on February 21 to commemorate the United Nation’s Mother Tongue Day.

Ms Chimezie said the event, which would be held in Umuahia, would bring together many prominent sons and daughters of Igboland to discuss the way forward for the language.

“We are coming together to talk about our language, rub minds to see how we can stop our language from going into extinction.

“We are going to have a roundtable, after which we will come up with a communique,” the IWA president said.

She called on Governor Charles Soludo to checkmate the activities of Agunechemba – a vigilance group and stop the extra-judicial killings in Anambra.

“When they make arrests, they should hand the suspects over to the police for proper investigation and prosecution rather than killing them.

“Agunechemba has no right to arrest and kill, and there have been too much blood-letting and killing of our youths in the South-East,” Ms Chimezie said.

(NAN)