Northern youths under the aegis of the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF) have asked the governors in South-Eastern states to take measures in protecting the lives and properties of Northerners living in south-eastern communities, just as the IPOB Sit-at-home enforcement violence escalates.
While condemning the IPOB Sit-at-home order, the statement by the President of the AYCF, Yerima Shattima frowned at what he called the mindless, unrelenting violent disturbances created by certain interest groups in the South-East, in the form of the agitation for a separate State of Biafra.
He said: ” we are aware that the perpetrators of violence relentlessly pursuing this agenda of destruction and collective mayhem, fervently hoping it will engulf the entire country and bring about mass killings and suffering of innocent people”.
“The AYCF is calling for guaranteed protection of the lives and properties of Northerners in the entire southeast”, added.
“We are worried that often the mindless violence and extremist terrorist actions perpetrated by IPOB and its followers in the South-East resort to the long-practised tactics of attacks against northerners and against agents and symbols of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“We are therefore compelled to demand from the South-East governors’ action to ensure an environment in which the Northerner is safe and secure wherever he chooses to live and work in the Southeast just as the North is ready to support other Nigerians to benefit from our tolerance and accommodation if they show appropriate respect for the context of their livelihoods.
“It is in our culture to welcome and live with outsiders, and we must never be tired of reminding other Nigerians that the laws of the land demand that every Nigerian lives and earns his legitimate living in any part of Nigeria without discrimination or molestation,” Shettima said.
Shettima however said the North is very much aware that unlike the previous set of governors of South-Eastern states, the current state administrations are showing some level of commitment in resisting the terrorist tactics of the IPOB.
“We also commend the renewed gallantry of our troops under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to checkmate the manoeuvres of all terror outfits in the country, ” he said.
