Chidi Samuel || The Biafra separatist group, the Indigenous people of Biafra, IPOB on Friday rejected the withdrawal of the quit notice issued to the Igbo in northern Nigeria by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum.
IPOB’s position was conveyed by its Secretary, media and publicity, Emma Powerful.
In withdrawing the quit notice on Thursday, The Arewa youths said they listened to the voices of northern elders and the desire of President Buhari’s government to keep the country as a united entity.
But in a response through its Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, IPOB asked the Arewa youths to ‘stick to the quit notice’, if they have any ‘honour’.
IPOB also advised all Igbos and other Southerners resident in the north return home, noting that history had shown that the withdrawal of the notice does not mean that Igbo lives and property are safe in the North.
IPOB said, “It is inconsequential to IPOB whether the ‘quit notice’ was rescinded or not because it will in no way impact the pace and direction of our effort to restore Biafra.
“Threats don’t have any effect on us, so our advice to the Arewa North is to please stick to the October 1 deadline or else they have no honour.
“We urge all southerners in the core North to return home before October 1 as history will most definitely repeat itself.
“Southerners were massacred in the pogroms of 1966 and 1967 after similar assurances were issued then that people should remain in the North,” the IPOB spokesman said.
“The presence of a serving governor and senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during the supposed press briefing confirms what we have always known that the incitement to genocide, which is what the ‘quit notice’ is all about, has the blessing of the Arewa political class,” Powerful said.
Just as the Arewa youths have insisted on the re-arrest of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB also urged the Federal Government to arrest leaders of the Northern group.
“If President Muhammadu Buhari is at all serious about clamping down on hate speech, he should arrest those behind the ‘quit notice’ along with their sponsors,” IPOB said.
“Trying to drag the name of our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, into their unintelligent blood fest will be resisted.
“If the idea is to cow our leader with calls for his arrest, then those behind the genocidal edict of ‘Igbos must leave the North’ are even dumber than we thought.
“Nigeria is crumbling today before our eyes due to the arrest of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu; those wishing for him to be arrested again are basically signing the death warrant of Nigeria,” the secessionist group added.