From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
As IPOB sit-at-home home enforcement violence escalates, President, Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF), Yerima Shettima, yesterday, urged governors in South-eastern states to take measures to protect the lives and property of Northerners living as minorities in the region.
Shettima in a statement condemned what he called “the mindless, unrelenting violent disturbances” created by certain interest groups in the South-east, in the form of the agitation for a separate State of Biafra.
To Shettima, North is very much aware that the current state administrations are showing some level of commitment in resisting the terrorist tactics of the IPOB, unlike their predecessors.
“We are 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 agents and symbols of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“We are, therefore, compelled to demand from the South-East governors to ensure an environment in which the Northerner is safe and secure wherever s/he chose 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
“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,” the statement read in part.