Alhaji Shettima Yerima, the leader of the Arewa Youth Coalition, which issued the now withdrawn October 1st quit notice to Igbos in the North, has said that he has no personal problem with Igbo people.
“A lot of my friends are Igbo people. I have nothing against the Igbo,” The Sun quoted him as saying.
“It did not end there; let me also demonstrate that to you; my first wife is from Calabar, the old south-eastern region. We have two kids. I have a good relationship with the Igbo.”
On the rejection of the withdrawal of the quit notice by the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), Shettima said he did not do it for Kanu.
“Did I do it for him or in the interest of the country? His rejection of the suspension of the quit notice is not important to me,” he said.
“What we did was to demonstrate that we have a culture. We give respect to our elders and it was to ensure that the country remains together. The country is above anybody. On that basis, his acceptance or not is not important but I know that he also is not speaking for the Igbo. It is a minority view of few people making all sorts of noise.
“It is not really important to me and I do not want to join issues with them. Nigeria is above everybody and I stand on the path of one united country. We have to build a nation that we can call our own.”
When asked about some other northern youth would who have ignored the withdrawal, he said:
“Nobody would do anything. Anybody who does anything, we make sure that the authorities arrest the person. We are in charge.
“Nobody should be scared of anything. Our youths are reasonable; they are known to respect one another; we listen to our leaders unlike some other parts of the country. But having said that, you can be rest assured that there is no cause for alarm.
“So, let Nigerians be rest assured that nothing would befall anybody by God’s grace and we are working towards that and we would give the government the maximum support. Our brothers across board, we would make sure that no evil would befall them. That is the position of things.”