In a direct rebuttal to the sustained threat of secession by pro-Biafra groups in the South-East, a platform of frontline Northern youth organisations have demanded that all Igbos resident in the North must relocate from the region.
According to a joint statement by the groups, Igbos must leave the North by October 1, 2017.
In a direct rebuttal to the sustained threat of secession by pro-Biafra groups in the South-East, a platform of frontline Northern youth organisations have demanded that all Igbos resident in the North must relocate from the region.
The ultimatum was the outcome of a joint meeting of the groups tagged “Kaduna Declaration,” which held Tuesday at the Arewa House in Kaduna.
According to a statement read by Mallam Abdulazeez Suleiman, Igbos in the North had up till October 1 this year, to leave the region.
“The persistence for the actualisation of Biafra by the unruly Igbo of South-Eastern Nigeria has lately assumed another alarming twist which involved the forceful lockdown of activities and denial of other people’s right to free movement in the South-East by the rebel Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its overt and covert sponsors,” the statement read in part.
The groups were also peeved that “the Igbo people of the South-East, without remorse for the carnage they wrought on the nation in the 1960s, are today boldly reliving those sinister intentions connoted by the Biafran agitation that led to the very first bloody insurrection in Nigeria’s history.
“Emboldened by the apparent indifference of the Nigerian authorities, the Igbo secessionist tendency is widening in scope and action at every stage, with adverse effects on the law-abiding people of other regions residing in or passing through the East, while the Igbo leaders and elders by their utterances and direct action or inaction appear to support and encourage it,” the group recalled.
The statement advised that “With the effective date of this declaration, which is today, Tuesday, June 06, 2017, all Igbos currently residing in any part of Northern Nigeria are hereby served notice to relocate within three months and all northerners residing in the East are advised likewise.”
The youth groups also gave notice of their intention to follow through the declaration, stating that “we are hereby placing the Nigerian authorities and the entire nation on notice that as from the 1st October 2017, we shall commence the implementation of visible actions to prove to the whole world that we are no longer part of any federal union that should do with the Igbos.
“From that date, effective, peaceful and safe mop-up of all the remnants of the stubborn Igbos that neglect to heed this quit notice shall commence to finally eject them from every part of the North.
“And finally, all authorities, individuals or groups are hereby advised against attempting to undermine this declaration by insisting on this union with the Igbos who have thus far proved to be an unnecessary baggage carried too far and for too long,” the group warned.
The various groups identified at the “declaration” were Arewa Citizens Action for Change, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Arewa Youth Development Foundation, Arewa Students Forum and Northern Emancipation Network on The Igbo Persistence for Secession.
