The
leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has rejected the
withdrawal of the October 1st quit notice the coalition of Northern Youths
issued to Igbos residing
in the North. The Northern youth group issued the quit
notice in June this year, asking Igbos who are interested in the creation of Biafra
to leave the region on or before October 1st 2017 or face physical attack.
After widespread condemnation and consultations with some elders in the North,
the youths had a press conference in Abuja yesterday which had in attendance
the Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima They announced the withdrawal of the
quit notice but added that they would still continue to push for the arrest of
IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Reacting to
the withdrawal, IPOB Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, said
in a statement released today that Arewa youths should stick to the quit
notice’if they have any ‘honour’. The group urged all Igbos and other
Southerners resident in the core Northern regions, to ignore the withdrawal of
the notice and return home. The IPOB spokesperson said the withdrawal does not
erase the fact that the life of Igbos and other southerners residing in the
region is not safe.
"It is
inconsequential to IPOB whether the ‘quit notice’ was rescinded or not because
it will in no way impact the pace and direction of our effort to restore
Biafra. Threats don’t have any effect on us, so our advice to the Arewa North
is to please stick to the October 1 deadline or else they have no honor. We
urge all southerners in the core North to return home before October 1 as
history will most definitely repeat itself. Southerners were massacred in the
pogroms of 1966 and 1967 after similar assurances were issued then that people
should remain in the North. The presence of a serving governor and senator of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria during the supposed press briefing confirms
what we have always known that the incitement to genocide, which is what the
‘quit notice’ is all about, has the blessing of the Arewa political class,”
Powerful said.
The IPOB
spokesman called on the Federal government to arrest the leaders of the
Northern group just as they have also called for the arrest of its leader,
Nnamdi Kanu.
“If
President Muhammadu Buhari is at all serious about clamping down on hate
speech, he should arrest those behind the ‘quit notice’ along with their
sponsors. Trying to drag the name of our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, into their
unintelligent blood fest will be resisted. If the idea is to cow our leader
with calls for his arrest, then those behind the genocidal edict of ‘Igbos must
leave the North’ are even dumber than we thought. Nigeria is crumbling today
before our eyes due to the arrest of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu; those wishing for him to
be arrested again are basically signing the death warrant of Nigeria".
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