hairman of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Ambassador Shettima Yarima, has said the quit notice given to Igbo in the northern states stands, pending the outcome of their current consultations across board.
• ‘You can’t live with us and talk Biafra’
• ‘We won’t use force’
The Chairman of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Ambassador Shettima Yarima, has said the quit notice given to Igbo in the northern states stands, pending the outcome of their current consultations across board.
“Our stand on Biafra still stands. But when the period expires, we are not going to expel them by force. We don’t have the constitutional power to do that. So whoever does not believe in Nigeria can leave at his will peacefully. We are not using any force to eject them from the North,” he said.
Yarima spoke at a town hall meeting organised by a coalition of northern youths at Ni’imah Guest Palace Hotel, Kano under the leadership of Nastura Ashir Sharif.
In his keynote address, Sharif said that apart from the quit notice, they had also written to the United Nations on the violent activities of the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, urging them to declare him a terrorist and his agitation illegal.
According to him, the Arewa youths are still expecting a response from the UN which would guide their next move. “That is why we say our quit notice still stands and our resolve that anybody who doesn’t want to stay in Nigeria should vacate our region still stands, but we are not going to use force to actualize that. We will do it through peaceful means, this is because of the fact that one cannot be living with us and talking Biafra,” Sharif stated.
He said it was sad that people focused more on the quit notice issued by the northern youths rather than on a “presented recorded video evidence where Nnamdi Kanu called for genocide like what happened in Rwanda.”
Sharif revealed that “After our Kaduna Declaration, when we issued a quit notice to all Igbo residing in the North to leave the region on or before 1st October, 2017, we received various calls from people both within and outside the country telling us to review our stand and come up with other demands or issues affecting the North.”
He said they were advised to go beyond Biafra issue and come up with strategies to tackle issues bothering on economy, unemployment, security, Almajiri and drug abuse as they affect the North.
“We are indeed heeding the calls, that is why we are here in Kano holding a Town Hall meeting in line with the advice. We would organise similar meetings in North East and North Central after which we will come up with our final stand regarding this issue,” he said.
Prof. Aliyu Jibia, who is the chairman of the Arewa Summit Development Initiative, in his submission, lamented the issue of Almajiri, urging the people to rise against the menace by proffering lasting solution to it.
He revealed that on the 1st of October, the group would hold a one- million-man march to sensitize the people on the menace of Almajiri that has been affecting the region for many years.
The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, on Wednesday knocked the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, for allegedly equating the IPOB group with the “faceless and uninformed” northern youths coalition, which issued a quit notice to the Igbo living in the North.
Kanu, who spoke in Abuja through his team of defence counsel led by Ifeanyi Ejiofor at a briefing, also accused the Federal Government of disrespecting court orders.
Kanu demanded that other detained IPOB leaders — Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu, David Nwawuisi and Bright Chimezie, be freed immediately.
He said, “With due reverence to the Acting President, and his rank as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, we deem it obligatory to state the correct position of the law as it relates to his faulty position.
“We observed most respectfully that the learned silk made this remark in direct response to the quit notice threats and ultimatum handed down to Igbo living in the northern part of the country, by a faceless and uninformed northern group.
“But it must be noted that it is a mistake to equate the lawful and legitimate aspirations and agitations for Biafra with the unlawful, illegal and illegitimate quit notice, and threat given to the Igbo people to leave the North by this group.
“We submit that the right to self-determination, recognisable under various instruments which Nigeria is a signatory to is clearly provided for under Article 20(1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) ( Act Cap 10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.”
The lead counsel said the five counts preferred against the IPOB leaders must also be “immediately withdrawn.”
“Section 35(1)(4) (a)(b) of the 1999 Constitution is explicit on the maximum length of time that a citizen can be detained in custody either with order of court or without trial. This period is two months and Bright Chimezie has spent well over nine months in detention of the state without trial, more so when a court of competent jurisdiction has ordered the Department of State Services to release Chimezie.
“On the strength of the foregoing, we demand that the five counts preferred against our clients — Kanu, Onwudiwe, Madubugwu. Nwawuisi and Chimezie — be immediately withdrawn and the defendants freed without further ado.
“We demand that Chimezie, who was ordered to be released by the order made on May 24 by His Lordship, Hon. Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, be released immediately without further ado and in compliance with the positive orders of court.”
Over the ultimatum give to the Igbos to quit the North, the former Abia State governor, has just received the leaders of the Coalition of Arewa Youths in his office in Abuja.
Former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Kalu, on Tuesday afternoon, received the leaders of the Coalition of Arewa Youths led by its chairman, Alhaji Shettima Yerima in his office in Abuja.
Here's what he posted on his Facebook page over the meeting on the Northern group;
"This afternoon, I received the leaders of the Coalition of Arewa Youths led by its Chairman, Alhaji Shettima Yerima . It is the same group that made the Kaduna declaration in which three months quit notice was given to the Igbo people living in the North. The quit notice have actually been a source of worry to me because I knew the commitments of our people around the world not to talk more of being economic migrants in nature.
"The unnecessary uprising caused by the quit notice inundated me to call them to order as nothing is too much to be sacrificed for peace. I believe the actions of these youth were borne out of frustration and I am happy that they have promised me today that they will further consult to sheath their swords and denounce their declaration.
"Today, they have given me their word of embracing peace and maintaining that no harm shall befall any of our people in the North. I believe in a united Nigeria where fairness, equity and justice are instituted. I also believe that our lives are sacrosanct and no Igbo blood should be spilled at any slightest provocation again."
Before the visitors left, they had group photographs with their host as proof of their commitment to the promise and rethink.
In the course of achieving the Great Igbo Nation, the strategy below has been tested and trusted via the #ObianoEffect in Anambra State.
1. Provide adequate Security like in Anambra that's now the Safest State in Nigeria;
2. Commission Committees and Policies to aid investment like the Anambra Land Acquisition Committee & C of O Promo, etc;
3. Set up a one stop shop for Investment like the ANSIPPA in Anambra State;
4. Establish an agency to provide loans to micro, small and medium scale enterprises just like the ASBA in Anambra;
5. Commence rapid development of every community and the capital cities like the Anambra Community Infrastructure program and ACTDA initiative;
6. Start a massive "Aku Lue Uno" Campaign to urge ndi Igbo world over to bring their investments home.
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