Northern elders disown Ango Abdullahi for supporting call to evict Igbos

chika ebuzor

June 9, 2017 10:24 PM

Abdullahi had earlier criticised Governors of the North for condemning the action of the youths who asked the Igbos to go.

Biafran flag being waved at a protest

The Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) has said that Prof. Ango Abdullahi did not speak for them when he supported the call for Igbos to leave the North.

He also said that money was taken from the North to build railways and refineries.

Speaking further, the Deputy Leader of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Elder Paul Unongo “I am the Deputy Leader of the Northern Elders Forum and Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Sule is the leader. So, only the two of us can speak for the forum on sensitive matter like this. Therefore, if Professor Ango Abdullahi is backing those ignorant youths, then he is speaking for himself.

“We cannot support the nonsense those boys said. We fought civil war with our blood to keep Nigeria one. So, any Nigerian can live in any part of the country he feels like. Igbos are welcome in the North, they are welcome in Yoruba land and my own village in Tiv land and they have right to pursue their daily bread and own property.

“We couldn’t have killed three million people to keep Nigeria one and come back and allow these kids (the Northern Youth Groups) to insult our intelligence. We knew why we fought the war, we knew why we killed the people we loved. We knew why we made the sacrifice of three million men dead. So, Northern Elders Forum cannot take same position as those young men, if at all they took a position.

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“So, if the young men cannot build a nation, they should not destroy the one we put our lives on the line to build for them. We cannot allow young men who did not fight the civil war with us to destroy our country, because Nigeria cannot afford another civil war.”

Some Governors from the North and notable politicians in the region have also come out to condemn the utterances of the Coalition of Northern Youths (CNY).

chika ebuzor