Imo State
Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has described the quit order issued by Arewa
youths as nonsensical, ill-informed, inciting and capable of causing anarchy in
the country.
Governor
Okorocha who stated this, yesterday, at the Government House, Owerri when he
addressed journalists, said the situation must be addressed immediately to save
the nation from any crisis.
“The
statement issued by some Arewa youths to the effect that Igbo living in the
north should leave on or before October 1, is not only nonsensical and
ill-informed but also inciting and capable of causing anarchy in the country.
“Similarly,
the reactions from the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and members of the
Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) asking
Igbo in the north to come back home is equally nonsense because that is not what
we want at this moment. It will be wrong for the leaders of the nation to allow
miscreants to kill the nation and the current campaign of hatred must be
stopped,” he stated.
Okorocha
said the agitation for the sovereign state of Biafra did not have the blessings
of the political leaders of South-east.
“What we
should be talking about is how to develop the country because other leaders of
Africa are waiting for Nigeria to take her rightful position as the leader of
the continent of Africa, but rather we are dissipating our energy fanning the
embers of ethnic and religious hatred. The Igbo have contributed to the
economic development of this country more than any ethnic nationality because
they have their investments scattered all over the country and they should,
therefore, not join in the song of disunity because they will suffer more
whenever there is crisis.”
He promised
to bring the Arewa and the Igbo youths together noting that the South-east and
the North have always enjoyed political relationship.
Meanwhile,
MASSOB said it would resist “the born to conquer and rule syndrome” of the
North.
In a
statement signed by its Director of Information, Edeson, MASSOB said the quit
notice was a plot to create confusion in the country.
“Their aim
is to take over the seat of power at all cost because they are afraid of
President Muhammadu Buhari’s health.
“They plotted
a coup and the coup got exposed, they decided to use the quit notice order
against Ndigbo to create confusion in order to use the military to take over
the government like they did withy June 12. We, the Biafrans, will resist the
born-to-rule or born-to-conquer syndrome by the north.”
MASSOB also
said those advocating for restructuring or Igbo presidency were on their own as
the group would not go for anything other than Biafra.
Kano State
Police Commissioner, Mr. Rabi’u Yusuf, assured Igbo residents in the state of
adequate protection.
A statement
released in Kano yesterday by DSP Magaji Majiya, the Police Public Relations
Officer in the state, said the CP gave the assurance on Monday at a meeting
with the leadership of the Igbo community.
The commissioner
also assured the Igbo of the commitment of the command to ensuring the safety
of their lives and property like every other Nigerian living in the state.
He called on
Igbo to remain calm, continue to carry out their businesses lawfully and live
peacefully with other ethnic groups.
In his
remark, Eze Igbo Kano, Dr. Boniface Ibekwe expressed gratitude to the
commissioner for summoning the meeting “at this crucial time’’.
In spite of
the assurance, a cleric and founder of John 3:16 Ministry, Aba, Abia State,
Samuel Ajayi, has joined those urging Ndigbo in the North to return to the
East.
The cleric,
who spoke in Aba against the backdrop of the October 1 ultimatum for Igbo
living in the North to return to the South-east, said their lives were worth
more than N44 trillion investments, thereby rubbishing the argument that it
would be difficult for Igbo to leave their investments in the North put at
about N44 trillion.
“It is when
someone is alive that he would talk about his wealth”, he said.
To douse the
tension being generated by the quit notice, leadership of the Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the north met with the Senate President, Bukola
Saraki.
Niger State
chairman of CAN, Reverend Mathias Echioda, who confirmed the meeting in Minna
yesterday, said CAN in the 19 northern states took exception to the quit
notice.
Though,
Echioda did not give further details of the meeting, he asked the “elders” in
the north to put pressure on the Arewa youths to withdraw the ultimatum and
tender apology to Igbo.
“A society
that does not accept strangers will never grow, it will remain archaic and
backward. That quit notice is an unfortunate development. I am disappointed
that some elders are even joining in this type of thing rather than condemning
it,” he submitted.
The meeting
also discussed the prevailing security situation in the region, especially in
the Southern Kaduna and alleged marginalisation of Christians by some governors
in the region.
He described
the recent appointments, postings of permanent secretaries and the composition
of Niger State Executive Council as “marginalisation at its highest peak”.
He pointed
out that of the 15 commissioners in the state executive council, only three
were Christians while out of the 17 permanent secretaries, only three were also
Christians.
“This is an
outright marginalisation; the equation cannot balance under that arrangement,”
he said
While it
condemned the quit order, apex Igbo socio-cultural group, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo
Lagos appealed to Igbo across the country to continue to live peacefully with
their host communitie
Addressing
Ohaneze chairmen and youth leaders from the 23 local governments and 33 council
development areas in an emergency meeting,
president of the Lagos chapter of the association, Dr. Femi
Ferguson-Okoh charged Ndigbo to be wise like the biblical serpent and yet
harmless as dove in pursuing their goals within the entity called Nigeria.
He urged the
security agents and agencies to go beyond rhetoric and carry out investigations
to unmask the masterminds of the eviction order and nip their evil plans in the
bud.
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