The Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, AYCF, has told the Igbo living in the north to ignore calls by embattled Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, demanding their return.
Recall that IPOB had rejected the quit notice withdrawal stating that all Ndigbo living in the north should return to their homeland.
IPOB had said: “We urge all southerners in the core north to return home before October 1 as history will most definitely repeat itself.
“Southerners were massacred in the pogroms of 1966 and 1967 after similar assurances were issued then that people should remain in the north.”
In reaction to the call for return by the IPOB, the leader of the Arewa Youth, Yerima Shettima, while assuring Igbos in the north of guaranteed safety said: “There is no need for them (Igbo) to go anywhere. They can ignore IPOB; they are not even popular.”
Shettima added: “We have a culture; we have a background and when we say something we stand by it. We are not like IPOB that talks from both sides of the mouth.
“Before we arrived at our decision, we consulted widely. Our people are not violent. We have leaders and when they speak, we obey them. It is part of our culture.”
Shettima however noted that the quit notice was a move to unify the country.
He said: “Our focus is to unify the country and for the nation to remain one. It is left for the political elite and the traditional rulers to get them to embrace peace. For us, we have demonstrated our patriotism to the country.
“But we still insist on the call for a referendum for the Igbo to leave the country; we are working on it. We want a referendum to be enshrined in the constitution.”