Igbo quit notice: IPOB rejects withdrawal of threat, insists Igbos must vacate North

Nnamdi Kanu (the leader of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra) 

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, under the leadership of Nnamdi Kanu, on Friday rejected Arewa youths’ decision to withdrawal the quit notice issued to Igbos in the northern part of the country.

Recall that Arewa youths had recently ordered Igbos residing in the North to vacate the region before October 1.

However, the coalition, in a press conference yesterday in Abuja withdrew the quit notice, saying Igbos can remain anywhere in the North. But, in its reaction, the pro-Biafra group described the withdrawal of the quit notice as “inconsequential.” IPOB insists that Arewa youths should, “stick to the quit notice,” if they have any “honour.”

A statement by IPOB’s spokesperson, Emma Powerful reads, “It is inconsequential to IPOB whether the ‘quit notice’ was rescinded or not because it will in no way impact the pace and direction of our effort to restore Biafra.

“Threats don’t have any effect on us, so our advice to the Arewa North is to please stick to the October 1 deadline or else they have no honour. “We urge all southerners in the core North to return home before October 1 as history will most definitely repeat itself.

“Southerners were massacred in the pogroms of 1966 and 1967 after similar assurances were issued then that people should remain in the North,” the IPOB spokesman said. The pro-Biafra group alleged that the ‘quit notice’, which it described as an incitement to genocide, was endorsed by Northern political leaders.

“The presence of a serving governor and senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during the supposed press briefing confirms what we have always known that the incitement to genocide, which is what the ‘quit notice’ is all about, has the blessing of the Arewa political class.

“If President Muhammadu Buhari is at all serious about clamping down on hate speech, he should arrest those behind the ‘quit notice’ along with their sponsors,” IPOB said. “Trying to drag the name of our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, into their unintelligent blood fest will be resisted.

“If the idea is to cow our leader with calls for his arrest, then those behind the genocidal edict of ‘Igbos must leave the North’ are even dumber than we thought.

“Nigeria is crumbling today before our eyes due to the arrest of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu; those wishing for him to be arrested again are basically signing the death warrant of Nigeria,” the secessionist group added.