The Arewa Youths Forum said the quit notice earlier issued to all Igbos residing in the Northern part of the country to vacate the region before October 1 achieved its purpose before the Forum withdrew it. One of the leaders of the group, Alhaji Yerima Shettima stated this in a chat with Vanguard. He explained that the group decided to withdraw the quit notice because of the respect they have for the President, Muhammadu Buhari as well as their quest to ensure the unity of the country.
According to him “In the first place, we considered the fact that we are not agents of destruction. We are agents of building a progressive Nigeria. You will also recall that the reason we went to the extreme of doing what we did was as a result of the mad agitation coming from the South East. No tribe or people will allow anyone to abuse the sensibility of their leaders and get away with it without any caution. So, we felt that the silence of the leaders and traditional rulers of the South East is a conspiracy of silence to allow Nnamdi Kanu to continue with his quest, we felt there was need at that time to do what we did."
“Unfortunately, time has over taken a lot of things but we have seen that political leaders and leaders from the South East have come out to condemn the activities of the young man. The leaders are also coming out to say that they don’t believe in Biafra but in one Nigeria, it is commendable. There was also pressure and intervention from our leaders, they spoke to us to withdraw the notice and we listened to their counsel. You will also recall that the Sultan of Sokoto called us to intervene, the northern leaders also spoke to us followed by other prominent northern leaders as well as other stakeholders”.
Probed to state what the notice achieved, Shettima said “First, we have succeeded in exposing the fraud in the agitation, which has been brought to the fore. Also, we have seen southern leaders and traditional rulers from the South East coming out to condemn the Biafran struggle. We are also seeing the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo coming out to talk about a united Nigeria and condemning Biafra. This is commendable and a plus to Nigeria. The quit notice has achieved the desired result. All we need do is work with those who believe in a united Nigeria”.
