Northern Group Calls for Dialogue With Biafra Agitators

Fri, Nov 20, 2015
By publisher
3 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Politics

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North-East Youths Peace Development Initiate, a group of Northern youth group, wants the federal government to dialogue with agitators of a sovereign state of Biafra instead of using force

| By Anayo Ezugwu | Nov 30, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT |

NORTH-EAST Youths Peace Development Initiate, a group of Northern youth group, has advised the federal government to dialogue with those agitating for a sovereign state of Biafra instead of using force. The group also dissociated itself from the call for the Igbos in the north to quit the area.

In a statement by Kyari Idris Abubakar, national president of the group, said using force would only lead to crisis in the country. “Like those of us who have been suffering from insurgency in the past years we would not hesitate to advice against anything that would lead to violence in the country,” he said.

Though Abubakar said he shared in the vision of northern youths, he expressed regrets over the recent call for Igbos to move out of the north because it was capable of generating tensions and possibly lead to violence. “I want to remind the group that we have northerners in the south-east and other parts of the country and if the threat is carried out they would also be asked to move back to the north the development that negates principle of peaceful co-existence as a nation,” he said.

The youth leader urged President Muhammadu Buhari, the service chiefs and minister of interior to step into the matter in order to avoid it from degenerating. According to Abubakar, since the agitators of the sovereign state of Biafra do not enjoy the support of many Igbo leaders including the governors, there is no need for one to go as far as asking for the Igbos to quit northern part of the country.

Abubakar who is also the leader of Lagos State chapter of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, further stated that the constitution of the country gives liberty to its citizens to choose any part of the country as residence. According to him, the major task ahead of northern youths in the country is not for Igbos to quit the north but to join hands with the new government and service chiefs to end the ongoing insurgency in the region.

“Our land and economy have been destroyed as a result of the ongoing insurgency; the urgent task for any right thinking northern youth is how to join forces with the government to end the ongoing war and rebuild our land and not to ask anybody to go his state of origin,” he said, suggesting that dialoguing with the agitators was the best approach in handling the matter.

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