Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El Rufai, has directed the Nigeria Police Force to immediately arrest all signatories to the so called Kaduna declaration, giving a three month ultimatum to the Igbo leave the northern part of the country.
Similarly, the governor has equally directed his Attorney General and commissioner for Justice to prepare charges of incitement against leaders of the group. Addressing a press conference in Kaduna Wednesday, the governor said Kaduna state has no room for anybody that will try to incite one section of the country against the other
. A coalition of Northern groups yesterday issued a three month notice to all Igbo living in the northern part of the country to leave while also calling on all northerners living in Igbo land to also return to the north. Addressing a press conference in Kaduna Tuesday, spokesman of the group, Abdulazeez Suleiman said the north is no longer disposed to “coexisting with the Igbo and shall take definite steps to end the partnership by pulling out of the current federal arrangement.
According to the group, the Igbo have continued to maintain “open contempt and resentment for the collective decision expressed by majority of Nigerians” since the inception of this administration. “From today, June6, 2017, when this proclamation is signed, the north a critical player in the Nigerian project hereby declare that it will no longer be disposed to coexisting with the Igbo and shall take definite steps to end the partnership by pulling out of the current federal arrangement . “This concludes necessitated by the realisation that it since ceased to be comfortable or safe to continue sharing the same country with Igbo who have exhibited reckless disrespect for the other federating units and stained the integrity of the entire nation with their obsessions. “Rather than certain sections holding the whole nation to ransom at every stage, each should be allowed to go its way as we categorically proclaim today that the north is fed up with being the same country with th8s pack of acrimonious Igbo partners.
“The north hereby openly calls on the authorities and other national and international stakeholders to acknowledge this declaration by taking steps to facilitate the final dissolution of this hopeless union that has never been convenient to any of the parties” he said. As a first step towards the realisation of this, Mr Suleiman said the groups in the coalition shall “reclaim, assume and assert sole ownership and control of landed resources currently owned, rented or in anyway enjoyed by the Igbo in any part of northern Nigeria.
He said officials of the signatory groups to the declaration have been mandated to commence an immediate inventory of all properties, spaces or activity in the north currently occupied by Igbo for forfeiture at the expiration of the three months ultimatum. “We are hereby placing the Nigerian authorities and the entire nation on notice that as from the 1st October 2017, we shall commence the implementation of visible actions to prove to the whole world that we are no longer part of any federal union that do with the Igbo” he concluded.
The groups that signed the text of the press conference include Arewa Citizens Action for Change, Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, Arewa Youths Development Foundation, Area Students Forum, and northern Emancipation Network. Others are Northern Youths vanguard, Northern Youths Stakeholders Forum, North East Assembly and North Central Peoples Front.