HAD IT BEEN IGBOS ISSUED THE QUIT ON NORTH, BUHARI WOULD HAVE ORDERED MASS KILLING

United Eastern Congress Youths has stated that the recent announcement of quit notice issued to Igbos residing in the north by Arewa youth coalition has a political tone.

The group said that for the Arewa youth leaders who tried to incite ethnic violence to continue to work freely in the country is sufficient reason for there to be more in the notice of abandonment.

The organization also called on Igbos and other southeasterns living in any part of the country to return to their ancestral lands, insisting that there was no guarantee that their lives and property would be protected in case the Arewa youths ended up carrying out its threat to expel the Igbos with force to the expiration of the ultimatum in October of 2017.

National Secretary of the Organisation, Omon Ekpenyong, said this Friday in Owerri, the capital of the state of Imo, where he said that the declaration of the young people of the north was not only treacherous, but capable of igniting the ethnic war in the country.

He said, “My people I am greatly worried that up till this moment, nobody has been apprehended over the issue in the north with the Arewa youths, while if it were to be the Christian youths that gave the Hausa’s quit notice, which we are the right people to do so, because of the marginalisation and the killing of Christians in the north.

“Our leaders will go as far as ordering the killing and mass arrest of all the youths for prosecution. It is time for us to stand up and also ask them to vacate our terrain for peace to reign. C R K has been removed from their curriculum to study Arabic in the northern schools. I believe it is time for God to do his will, as it happened to the children of Israel in Exodus 12:40-41.

“Yes, Governor el-Rufai directed for the arrest of those Arewa youths, but I see it as a mere statement because up till now no meaningful arrest has been made and at the same time, they are gaining the support of a senator of the federal republic of Nigeria. The co-convener of the coalition of Northern groups Yerima Shettima even made it open that he has the support of his Elders. What are we not talking of. Is our perception not coming to reality.”

“When did Shettima Yerima and his collaborators become the Nigerian law enforcement agency? This is to show how marginalised the south is. This issue is related to beating a child and asking him not to cry which is the highest level of suppression. If I may ask, the northerners who come to the south and make little or no investment, don’t even pay house rent and have nothing to add to the region’s resource and well-being and the southerners who invest without any rethink. Who amongst them have the unity of the nation in mind? Asking Igbo to leave any region of Nigeria is baseless.

“The Igbo have over N44 trillion investments in the north, that we know, but their lives are more important than those things

“As we are beckoning on the Federal Government and security operatives to protect our people, the Igbo should get ready to defend themselves in case there arise any attack from the Arewa youths.”