The leadership of the United Eastern Congress Youths believes that the
recent quit order issued to the Igbo living in the northern part of the country
by a coalition of
Arewa youths has a political undertone as none of the youths
leaders have been arrested for trying to incite ethnic violence in the country.
This was just as the organisation has admonished the Igbo and other
south easterners living in any part of the country to return back to their
ancestral lands, insisting that there was no guarantee that their lives and
properties would be protected in the event that Arewa youths eventually carried
out their threat to forcefully evict the Igbo at the expiration of their
ultimatum in October 2017.
National Secretary of the Organisation, Mr. Omon Ekpenyong, who stated
this, on Friday, in Owerri, the Imo State capital, noted that the statement of
the northern youths was not only treasonable, but capable of igniting ethnic
war in the country.
According to him, “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.”
He added, “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”.
He therefore called on the Igbo residing in the North to come back
home, noting, “the Igbo have over N44 trillion investment 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”.
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