Reactions have continued to trail the quit notice Arewa youths issued to the Igbo living in the northern part of Nigeria. The Igbo were given three months to leave the north. The reaction came from the Igbo in South-West, who warned that they cannot be incited to fight war again.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has demanded that the 2019 presidential ticket be ceded to Ndigbo for peace to reign. In another development, a pan-Oodua group, has also started the agitation for Oodua Republic. Igbo who are resident in Oyo State said no amount of provocation by northern youths would incite the people to fight any form of war again.
The group who spoke through Chief Aloy Obi said those agitating for war against Igbo should be prevailed upon to allow the people to reside in any part of the country as provided by section 42 of the 1999 constitution. While backing governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State for his tough stance against proponents of disintegration, expressed displeasure at the alleged “seeming lackadaisical attitude of the police towards resolving the situation as the action of the Arewa groups contradicts the stand of the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, who said the police had sent detectives to arrest the youths that gave the ultimatum even when members of the group were still held another meeting in Kaduna as at Wednesday.”
Chief Obi tasked the northern youths to read history and find out the implication of their action, which, according to him, is tantamount to calling for war, saying, those that have witnessed war before will never pray for a situation of war. He cautioned against such an unguarded statement and threat, which he said are capable of igniting fire in the fragile peace in Nigeria, especially when the agitation for Biafra is very much tensed in the eastern part of the country as well.”
In its own reaction, IPOB in the South-South called on all the political parties in the country to cede their 2019 presidential tickets to the South-East, saying it is the only way to make the Igbo believe that they are wanted in this nation. The group also berated comments in some quarters that IPOB is being sponsored by some leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), in the South-East and South-South to destabilize the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
A statement signed by IPOB’s coordinator in the region, Dr. Nwokorie Igbe stated, “It is obvious now to everybody that the Igbo are not the problem of this nation but the north, who have exploited us over the years. It is in the history of this nation that all the political parties apart from APGA forbids any Igbo man emerging under their platform as presidential candidate. “Some people are today trying to blackmail Igbo youths that they are being sponsored, they should also tell us those who are sponsoring the massacre of the Igbo in the north and those who sponsored Boko Haram”.
O’odua Nationalist Coalition (ONAC) on their part called on Yoruba people to prepare for their sovereign nation, Oduduwa Republic, following the lingering agitation for the breakup of the federal republic of Nigeria. A statement issued by the group at the weekend, and signed by Mr. Oluwole Suleimann, Michael Popoola, and Mrs. Aduke Fadahunsi stressed the need for the creation of Yoruba sovereign nation, Oduduwa Republic. The group stressed that it became necessary in the face of the lingering problems and conflict built around the national question that has stunted the growth of Nigeria for over a century.
“This conflict has again reared its head, 50 years after a civil war that inflicted pain and misery on the Yoruba people, apart from distorting the development plan of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo for the South-West,” the group stated.
