IPOB rejects withdrawal of quit notice, asks Igbo to return home

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has rejected the withdrawal of the quit notice issued to Igbo resident in the northern region by the Arewa youth.

The Arewa youth had ordered the Igbo to leave the north on or before October 1, 2017, but withdrew the notice on Thursday.

Less than 24 hours after the withdrawal, IPOB has said the Arewa youth should “please stick to the October 1 deadline or else they have no honour”.

Emma Powerful, IPOB spokesman, said on Friday that southerners in the north are advised to return to the south-east despite the withdrawal.

“It is inconsequential to IPOB whether the ‘quit notice’ was rescinded or not because it will in no way impact the pace and direction of our effort to restore Biafra,” he said.

“Threats don’t have any effect on us, so our advice to the Arewa youth 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 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.”

The pro-Biafra group further urged President Muhammadu Buhari to arrest those behind the quit notice “if he is serious about clamping down on hate speech”.

On the Arewa youth’s request that Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB leader, should be arrested, the group said the attempt “to drag Kanu’s name 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.”