Withdraw your quit notice, southern leaders tell Arewa youths

Prominent southern leaders, including former Chief of General Staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe from South-east, Chief Ayo Adebanjo from South-west and Albert Horsefall from South-south have called for the immediate withdrawal of the quit notice issued by some Arewa youth groups to Igbo resident in the Northern.

The southern leaders made the call in a communiqué issued after a meeting held in the home of Chief Adebanjo in Lekki, Lagos, yesterday, saying except the quit notice was withdrawn, it would be taken that the notice had the backing of all northern leaders against entire southern Nigeria and that any attack as a result of the ultimatum against any Igbo would be deemed an attack against all southerners.

The communiqué which was read by the Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, was jointly signed by Ukiwe, Adebanjo and Horsefall for their respective geo-political zones.

The southern leaders also demanded that in the spirit of one Nigeria, the implementation of the 2014 national confab must begin on or before October 1st, 2017.

“We consider the need to avert the impending danger arising from the ultimatum given by the Arewa youths. We agreed that there is a growing demand by our people and other Nigerians to form a stronger federation in which principles and practice of true federalism are upheld.

“We observe that the cry for self-determination will continue unabated and become much more stringent unless the federal government sincerely address the issues of restructuring of Nigeria… We demand that Arewa youths and their sponsors must withdraw the quit notice given to the people of the South East as failure to do so, will be taken as an ultimatum given to the entire Southern Nigeria to quit their region and any attack against anybody from the south, will be considered an attack against the Southern Nigeria.”