While commending the Acting President’s effort at dousing the tension being generated by the quit notices through meeting with the Igbo leaders and their counterparts in the north, Comrade Imoh Okoko, spokesman of the Nigeria Ethnic Nationality Youth Leaders, said the a meeting with the youth leaders was a necessary aspect of the meeting which Osinbajo should not ignore.
Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt, Thursday, he explained that the current tension in the country was been caused by the youths and so any effort at dousing should involve them to be effective and sustainable.
He condemned the quit notices issued by a coalition of Arewa youth groups against the Igbos and that of the Niger Delta Militants against the Northerners living in the region.
The youths who thrown their support for the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osibanjo said they have decided to back the decision of the governors whom have said Nigeria must remain as one.
Okoko said his group had made all necessary arraignment to hold a peace summit in Abuja with all ethnic youth leaders including the militants adding that the Abuja peace summit would determine their position in the call for the implementation of 2014 National Conference and whether his group would join the call for the arrest of those behind the quit notice orders.
He said after the Abuja peace summit they are expecting the Acting Vice President to call for a meeting that would involve all the representatives of ethnic youth leaders including the Niger Delta militants
Okoko who is also the President of Ibibio National Youth Forum, said Nigeria Ethnic Nationality Youth Leaders are not in support of Biafra or any action that could bring disunity to the country.
“We cannot fold our hands and watch some youths making comments that are threat to national security. We know that there are some ethnic crisis that led to one agitation or the other but our position is to play a role that can calm the tension,” he stated.
Okoko added, “Nigerians have the right to live anywhere in this country that is why we are condemning the quit notice order. It is not in the interest of this country that we should be living in fear because we reside in another region. The Federal Government must act fast to solve the issue of Biafra. This people did not wake up one day to agitate, there must be something behind it.
“Our position on call for the 2014 National Conference is not clear now until after our meeting in Abuja. And we will not say we are in support of those calling for the arrest of those behind the quit notice order, because the meeting will determine our position; but we are in support of the governors’ decision.”
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