Quit notice: Arewa youths’ ultimatum, tragic, more treasonable than Kanu’s —PANDEF

The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has described the ultimatum issued by the Arewa youths for Igbos to vacate the North latest October 1 as tragic and more treasonable than the allegation Nnamdi Kanu is standing trial for.

The umbrella body of the Niger Delta people which expressed great shock at the quit order, said the statement appeared the “most dangerous statement ever made by any group to the unity and existence of Nigeria since the end of the Civil War.”

Member, Central Working Committee, CWC (PANDEF), Dr Alfred Mulade, in a statement he signed on behalf of the group and made available to journalists on Thursday in in Warri, Delta State, said the statement was a threat to the unity of the country.

“The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), the umbrella group of the Niger Delta people expresses grave shock at the recent statement by 16 Arewa youth groups at their gathering at the Arewa House in Kaduna, issuing an ultimatum to the Igbos to evacuate the North by October this year.

“PANDEF considers this statement by the Arewa youths as tragic and more treasonable than the offence allegedly committed by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB, for which he was held in detention for about a year.

“Not only is this statement a potent threat to the corporate unity of the country, but, in our view, appears the most dangerous statement ever made by any group to the unity and existence of Nigeria, since the end of the civil war.

“We must not forget how we came into the civil war that lasted for 30 months, and the avoidable calamities it wrought on our country. 50 years thereafter, things have changed a great deal.

“Loyalties and commitments should be total of all Nigerians to a Nigeria where all Nigerians are free to stay in any part of the country, free from any form of molestation and discrimination, a Nigeria where we are all each other’s brother’s keeper, in a Nigeria where no one is superior to the other, and where no one threatens to drive any other group of Nigerians away from any  part of the country.

“This statement by the Arewa youths which strikes at the very roots of the Nigeria we believe in, is, indeed, an attempt to divide and breakup the country, whose unity is guaranteed by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“In condemning this statement  in its entirety, PANDEF calls on all Northern state governments, elders, particularly the Arewa Consultative Assembly in whose House the press conference was held, not only to condemn it but to take concrete steps to reassure the Igbos and indeed all Nigerians that they are free to stay in the North without any form of molestations.”

Meanwhile, PANDEF has advised the Biafra Republic agitators to exclude the Niger Delta region from its supposed proposed republic.