SECOND Republic politician of Northern stock, Dr Junaid Mohammed, has said the North is not afraid of war if the intention of the Igbo is to trigger a civil war or break up the country for whatever reasons.
Mohammed, who spoke with Sunday Tribune on the division caused by the call from northern youth on the Igbo to return home within three months, accused the Igbo of attempting to plunge the country into another war through the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
He also accused the political power elite in the South-East of financing IPOB with the intention to blackmail other parts of the country and consequently subdue them politically.
But the Pan-Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, while speaking through its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Chuks Ibegbu, said Igbo might resort to self-defence if threat from the northern youth became real.
“Definitely when people are threatened, they are bound to react. The first law in heaven is self-defence. Nobody will sit idle and wait to be hacked down by mobs. So, the Igbo are bound to defend themselves.
“We hope the governors of the North, Arewa leaders and security agents will not allow the situation to degenerate into the Igbo resorting to self-help,” he said.
Also reacting, Secretary General of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Mr Anthony Sani, linked the recurring agitation of marginalisation in the country to the resources that accrue to central coffers almost effortlessly from crude oil.
Speaking with Sunday Tribune against the backdrop quit notice issued by some northern youth groups to the Igbo living in the North, Sani said agitations of marginsalisation had been growing because “Nigeria is a Trust Fund State that is fed by oil wealth that is not as a result of hard work.”