An All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) chieftain in Anambra State, Chief Ekene Enefe, has warned Igbos in the North to return to their home states.
Enefe admonished Igbos not to stay further in the North to avoid being taken unawares, adding in Igbo language that “anaghi agwa ochi nti na agha ebidogo” (you needed not to tell the deaf or someone hard of hearing that war has started).
Chief Enefe, who headed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fund-raising committee for election of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999, wondered why no single person among the youths who issued the threat was in custody.
He also recalled how some Northern elders openly declared support for the Arewa youths, days after the “divisive” pronouncement.
“How can you ask the Igbo to stay put in the North when not even a single soul has been arrested amongst the Arewa youths who made the inflammatory statement, asking Igbo to leave their territory.
“The Federal Government is not sincere about diffusing the fears in the North”, he told Sun.
“Those people who made the statement should have been arrested and prosecuted if there is no hidden agenda in asking the Igbo in the North to remain where they are.
“And the Arewa youths even repeated their threats the next day to show how serious they were.”
Enefe insisted that that the Federal Government would only be seen to be sincere if those behind the “Kaduna Declaration” and their sponsors are rounded up.
He said that this would go a long way in assuring Igbos of their safety as those contemplating attacks will have a re-think.
“This is not the first time the Igbo had faced this kind of situation. If the Acting President is not being remote-controlled by the Northerners, let him order the arrest of the those Arewa youths .
“Their prosecution will serve serve as a deterrent and by then Igbo will rest assured that their lives and property would be protected in an event of any crisis in the North”.
Meanwhile, Acting President, Yemi Osibanjo, on Wednesday insisted that the Federal Government will not take the threats issued to Igbos to leave the Northern region lightly.
He said this in his speech during a consultative meeting with South East Governors and leaders of thought in Southern states at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
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