A statement by the President of the AYCF, Yerima Shettima on Thursday condemned what he called the mindless, unrelenting violent disturbances created by certain interest groups in the Southeast, in the form of the agitation for a separate state of Biafra.
The Arewa Youths Consultative Forum has asked governors of Southeastern states in Nigeria to take measures to protect the lives and property of northerners living as minorities in their region as the enforcement of sit-at-home protests gets violent.
A statement by the President of the AYCF, Yerima Shettima on Thursday condemned what he called the mindless, unrelenting violent disturbances created by certain interest groups in the Southeast, in the form of the agitation for a separate state of Biafra.
A separatist organisation, the Indigenous People of Biafra directed that there would be a sit-at-home protest in the region on Mondays to push for the release of its detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu. However, it later made a U-turn, saying there would no longer be any sit-at-home protests in the South-East as it would affect businesses. But some unknown persons believed to be loyal to a self-proclaimed disciple of Kanu, Simon Ekpa have been enforcing the exercise.
The AYCF said, "Aware that the perpetrators of violence relentlessly pursuing this agenda of destruction and collective mayhem, fervently hope it will engulf the entire country and bring about mass killings and suffering of innocent people, the AYCF is today calling for guaranteed protection of the lives and properties of Northerners in the entire southeast.
"We are worried that often the mindless violence and extremist terrorist actions perpetrated by IPOB and its followers in the South-East result in resort to the long-practiced tactics of attacks against northerners and against agents and symbols of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
"We are therefore compelled to demand from the South-East governors action to ensure an environment in which the Northerner is safe and secure wherever he chooses to live and work in the Southeast just as the North is ready to support other Nigerians to benefit from our tolerance and accommodation if they show appropriate respect for the context of their livelihoods.
"It is in our culture to welcome and live with outsiders, and we must never tire of reminding other Nigerians that the laws of the land demand that every Nigerian lives and earns his legitimate living in any part of Nigeria without discrimination or molestation.”
Shettima added that the North is “very much aware that, unlike the previous set of governors of South-Eastern states, the current state administrations are showing some level of commitment in resisting the terrorist tactics of the IPOB”.
"We also commend the renewed gallantry of our troops under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to checkmate the maneuvers of all terror outfits in the country," he said.