Arewa youth group reverses eviction order

chika ebuzor

July 22, 2017 8:54 PM

Some political observers say this new twist is a result of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo’s mediation.

Leader of the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, Shettima Yerima

The leader of the group that issued a 90-day ultimatum asking Igbos to leave the North, Yerima Shettima has said that Igbos should not leave the region.

The eviction order raised a lot of dust, with youth groups from the South-East exchanging words with their counterparts in the North.

Speaking to The SUN in an interview, said his group made the call to bring Nnamdi Kanu to order.

See an excerpt of the interview below:

Question: You speak as though you have no regrets over the quit notice you gave. Can you assure the Igbo that they are safe in the North?

Answer: No, they are safe. You can rest assured they are safe. You can quote me; they are safe in the North.

Question: And nothing bad will happen to them?

Answer: They are safe. Events and time have changed the mindset of the northerner, not even me who represents their interest. A lot of them have realized that truly this young man does not speak for the entire Igbo. If we had not come out with a statement we probably not have realized that a lot of Igbo are not in support of Biafra. You can now see that we have reduced the entire IPOB struggle to nothing but a fraud. So now to an extent it is a plus for the Nigerian government.

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Question: So you can publicly say the Igbo shouldn’t go?

Answer: No, they shouldn’t go. They should relax. Officially, we will make an announcement to that effect because it is a collective thing. So they can rest assured of their safety and security God willing. We have no problems with the Igbo living in the North, but there are certain things we need to put in place so that officially at the level of the coalition we can make that statement.

Yerima Shettima recently dared security operatives to arrest him following his call for Igbos to leave the Northern region.

chika ebuzor