Igbo Quit Notice: S/East Elders Reply Northerners, Urges Igbos to Come Back Home

The South-East Elders Forum (SEEP) has
broken its silence over the Arewa youths
quit notice by warning the Igbo still
remaining in the northern part of the
country to see themselves as taking a big
gamble with their lives if they fail to read
the handwriting on the wall and come back
home immediately before the October 1
deadline.


The apex organization of Igbo elders
issued the warning in a press release
issued by the convener of the forum, Dr
Dozie Ikedife, in Nnewi, Anambra State,
yesterday and made available to newsmen.


The forum said that in the light of the
strong endorsement of the pronouncement
of the Arewa youths by Professor Ango
Abdullahi, the spokesman of the Northern
Elders Forum, the quit notice should be
seen as the tip of the iceberg of a well
thought out plan, no matter the contrary
statements which some of the northern
leaders might have made afterwards.


SEEF leadership noted that despite the
order for the arrest of the originators of
the quit notice and calls by other notable
voices in the north for the same, none of
the well-known individuals who signed the
quit notice had yet been apprehended.


Even if they were to be arrested today,
this would make no difference as plans
had already been concluded to evict Igbo
from the north.


“The anger and mood of the youths and
elders of the Arewa Consultative Forum
(ACF) was because the Igbo remembered
their lost relatives in the genocidal war
fought against them. And may be, they
didn’t get the opportunity to ask the law
enforcement agents to massacre those
who did the remembrance. This may be
the anger of the Arewa youths and their
elders.


“Let it be said clearly, as it goes in Igbo
adage, he who uses the gun, will also go
by the gun and he who uses machete, will
go by the machete. Anybody who raises a
machete or gun against an innocent
person will cut and shoot himself. This
ultimatum to Ndigbo is not taken lightly.


We have digested it very well and we know
the import and weight of the statement,”
the forum said.


On the way forward, it suggested that the
leadership of Ohanaeze, ACF, Afenifere
and the leadership of other ethnic
nationalities should engage themselves in
a frank talk on how to co-exist as
neighbours.

It said that the present elected governors
and legislators could not fashion out
solutions “because of obvious reasons of
their political baggage” and reminded the
Igbo in the North that nkwucha abughi ujo.


(This article was authored by David
Onwuchekwa, Nnewi first published in the
SunNews)