Kaduna government orders arrest of Northern Youths for issuing quit notice to Igbos

– The Kaduna state government orders the police to investigate and prosecute persons who endorsed the threat to Igbos in the northern region

– The government urges all residents to ignore the threats from the group, northern youths, noting that it is in contact with the Igbo community in Kaduna

– MASSOB urges Igbos living in the northern part of the country to start returning home

The Kaduna state government has ordered the immediate arrest of persons who signed a statement ordering Igbos out of northern Nigeria.

The state government in a statement issued by Samuel Aruwan, the spokesman to the governor of Kaduna state on Wednesday, June 7, condemned what it described as inciting, hate speech targeted at citizens of Igbo extraction.

It said: “The Kaduna state government takes exception to the fact that the “northern youths” did their irresponsible press conference in Kaduna. This government has been consistent in taking action to punish hate speech and incitement. People who may feel unhappy about irresponsible comments or actions that have taken place in other states must know that two wrongs cannot make a right, and they cannot use our state to do or say things that threaten the peace.”

The government therefore ordered the arrest, investigation and prosecution of the signatories to the statement issuing the quit notice to the Igbos in the north.

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“The Kaduna state government condemns in the strongest terms the press statement by some self-appointed “northern youths” that threatened the safety and property of our citizens of Igbo extraction.

Government assures every resident of our state that their constitutional and human rights to live peacefully and own property wherever they choose is sacrosanct.

Even people who may feel unhappy about irresponsible comments or actions that have taken place in other states must know that two wrongs cannot make a right.

“Reckless disregard for the rights of other citizens drips through the press statement by these “northern youths” who have chosen to use the discourse around restructuring to promote their own agenda of hate, division and incitement.

This sort of opportunists cannot be allowed to distort debate, or turn it into a pretext for a barely-disguised agenda of displacement and dispossession of some citizens. “We will not tolerate such irresponsible statements and conduct in our state. The statement issued by the “northern youths” violates the laws of Kaduna State.

Therefore, the Kaduna State Government has directed that its Ministry of Justice should prepare charges and prosecute the signatories and anyone complicit in arranging this egregious assault on the rights of fellow citizens,” the Kaduna state government noted.

The authorities also directed the police to immediately arrest, interrogate the signatories to the statement and investigate all the circumstances and persons that may be implicated in the matter. It urged all residents to ignore the threats from the group, noting that it was in contact with the Igbo community in Kaduna.

It said: “We delighted to say that this community, like all our other communities, believes in the strength of the constitutional order to protect all citizens. “KDSG wishes to encourage all our people to celebrate the diversity with which the Almighty has blessed us, to continue to shun agents of division, and to stand firm in upholding a common humanity.

Everyone has a right to live in peace and harmony.”

plusmilang.com recalls that a group named, the Coalition of Northern Youths (CNY) on Tuesday, June 6, issued a statement ordering Igbo people in the north to vacate Northern Nigeria within 3 months.

It was learnt that learnt that the group also urged northern people in the south-eastern part of the country to immediately start moving back to their various states.

The group threatened that from the 1st October, 2017, it will begin to prove to the whole world the north was no longer part of any federal union that should do with the Igbos.

Meanwhile, the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign States of Biafra (MASSOB) has urged Igbos living in the northern part of the country to start returning home following the quit notice issued to all the Igbos in the region is by the Coalition of Northern Youths (CNY).

In reaction to the notice given by the northern group, MASSOB leader, Comrade Uche Madu, in a statement, said the quit notice did not come as a surprise, the Sun reports.

“MASSOB congratulates the Arewa political, religious, traditional and opinion leaders who sponsored their youths wing by using Arewa House in Kaduna for this greatest meeting of a coalition of Islamic fundamentalist,” the group said. MASSOB pleaded with Igbos not to wait for the three months quit notice to expire before they vacate the region.