Leave the north urgently - IPOB tells Igbo people in the north

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Saturday, June 10 called on Igbo people in the north to immediately commence relocation to their original states in the south-east. IPOB, the major group backing the planned secession of the Igbo people from Nigeria, said it backed the three-month quit notice served on Igbo living in northern parts of the country recently. Punch reports that a press statement made available by IPOB in Awka, Anambra state, said the group commended the northern youths and Arewa Elders Forum for making the actualization of Biafra early.

The statement released by Emma Powerful, the spokesperson of the group, IPOB noted that quit notice has a human face this time unlike previously when there was fear that unexpected attacks.“The members of the Indigenous People of Biafra and its leadership worldwide wish to sincerely thank the Arewa Elders Forum, Arewa Youths and Arewa Consultative Forum for seeing sense in what IPOB has been saying about the need for a referendum to be conducted in Nigeria to decide the fate of the component ethnic nationalities criminally lumped together by the British in 1914. “Biafrans in general also wish to thank these vocal northerners for at least having the courtesy to issue advance warning this time before embarking on their routine massacre of Igbos and other Biafrans living in northern Nigeria; unlike what their fathers did in 1966 when death, destruction and mayhem were unleashed upon unsuspecting innocent civilian populations from the south comprising of mostly Igbo men, women and children. “Igbo massacres in northern Nigeria has occurred so many times that it has almost become some sort of an annual sporting activity for blood thirsty Northern youths. “That is why we are particularly grateful to Arewa Youths and Elders for having the decency to give us prior notice before the slaughter commences,” the statement said. Meanwhile, NAIJ.com reported earlier that as the tension caused by the three-month quit notice to Igbo people resident in the northern part of Nigeria continues to rise, there are pressures on security agencies to arrest Professor Ango Abdullahi, one of the elders of the region. The Northern Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), a pressure group in the region has demanded for the arrest of Professor Abdullahi, spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), for supporting the notice. The group also demanded the arrest of the members of the coalition that put the country in its current state through the notice to the Igbos.