Igbo quit notice: Security on top of situation ―FG

FOLLOWING the ultimatum issued by some Northern youth groups for Igbos living in the North to leave and the responses it generated from other ethnic groups, the Federal Government has expressed its determination to deal with perpetrators of renewed ethnic tensions in the country.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said on Wednesday that even though such ultimatums were not new, the nation’s security agencies were up to the task and on top of the matter.

Briefing State House correspondents after the regular meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by acting President Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, he however noted that the issue was not part of the deliberations during the meeting.

In response to a question on the ultimatum, he said: “The issue of one or two groups issuing statements that is capable of destabilising the polity and then being responded to by another group, I think did not just start today or did not start yesterday.

“What I want to assure you is that security organizations are very much on top of this matter.”

The groups that issued a position paper in which they gave the quit notice on Tuesday in Kaduna

are 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.

The groups had claimed the north was no longer disposed to tolerating “further Igbo blackmail and intimidation,” adding that the Igbos should be allowed to go their separate way.

They also said however that if Igbos were allowed to leave Nigeria, the north would also leave the Nigerian union.

According to the groups, “having come this far,  we wish to categorically state that the North is no longer keen in being the same country with this unruly pack of unrepentant hooligans.

“That the North supports and encourages the authorities and other national and international stakeholders to allow the rebellious Igbo to go their way.

“That in the event the Igbo is not allowed to pull out, the North shall divorce this marriage that has never been convenient to any of the parties.

“That as a prelude we call on all Igbos currently residing in any part of Northern Nigeria to relocate within two weeks and northerners in the East should do likewise.

“That northern leaders are hereby warned against further insisting on this union with the Igbo or any other part of Nigeria that is disposed to self determination.”