Those behind Igbo ‘quit notice’ must be arrested, prosecuted – PANDEF

The Pan Niger Delta Forum has condemned the ultimatum issued by some Arewa youth groups to Igbo residents in the North, noting that the quit notice was treasonable offence and portends great threat to the nation’s unity.

PANDEF which is under the leadership of Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark, said the group considered the statement by the Arewa youths as the most dangerous statement ever made by any group to the unity and existence of Nigeria, since the end of the Civil War.

In a statement signed on behalf of the group by a Member of the Central Working Committee, Dr. Alfred Mulade, late Wednesday evening, PANDEF called on Northern state governments, elders, particularly the Arewa Consultative Assembly in whose House the press conference was held, not only to condemn it but to take concrete steps to reassure the safety of the Ibos in the region.

It stated that if urgent steps were not taken the ultimatum was capable of tearing the country apart and demanded that those behind the statement should be arrested and tried for treason as the quit notice was more of treason than the one the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, allegedly committed.

The statement read, “PANDEF considers this Statement by the Arewa Youths as tragic and more treasonable offence than the offence allegedly committed by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB, for which he was held in detention for about a year. Not only is this statement a potent threat to the corporate unity of the country, but, in our view, appears the most dangerous Statement ever made by any group to the unity and existence of Nigeria, since the end of the Civil War.

“This statement by the Arewa Youths which strikes at the very roots of the Nigeria we believe in, is, indeed, an attempt to divide and break up the Country, whose unity is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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