The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, has declared that it did not send quit notice to Igbo living in any part of Yorubaland.
The group said all Nigerians have the right to live in any part of the country as provided by the 1999 constitution.
A viral video on the social media gave the impression that the group has given quit notice to Igbo living in all parts of Yorubaland.
But, leader of Afenifere, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, in a statement he personally signed debunked the video, saying it did not emanate from Afenifere.
Fasoranti said the group has nothing to do with person or group of people who released the video on the social media.
He, therefore, disowned the alleged eviction notice and urged the Igbo to continue to live peacefully wherever they are.
While urging Nigerians to embrace peace, he called for harmonious relationship among the various ethnic groups in the country.
Similarly, the South-East Governors’ Forum has assured Nigerians from other ethnic groups of their safety in Igboland.
Its chairman Ebonyi Governor, David Umahi, gave the assurance, yesterday, when he inspecting properties damaged by hoodlums at Okposi and Uburu communities of Ohaozara LGA of Ebonyi in the wake of the #EndSARS protests across the country.
He said he had spoken with leaders from all the geopolitical zones and assured them of their citizens’ safety.
“They, in turn, assured us of the safety of our people in their lands, especially those living in the South-West. They urged us to ignore the threats of crisis being circulated in the social media.
“We want to assure all ethnic groups residing in the South-East to go about their business peacefully and report any threat to the governors and security agencies.”
He said there were criminal elements across the country and the youths had been directed to fish out the perpetrators of the destruction to face the law.
“We believe in the oneness of the country where justice and equity will thrive. We believe that together we will be stronger. I appeal to the Igbo youths across the country not to join the protests further.
“They should not allow anybody use them in terming the protests an Igbo affair.”
Umahi, who described the period as a trying moment for the country urged the citizens to toe the path of President Muhammadu Buhari who had spoken in the nation’s oneness.
Those embittered about Igbo, Yoruba renewed unity fabricating falsehood to kill it – Ezeife
Elder statesman and former Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, yesterday, lashed out at those instigating conflict between the Igbo and the Yoruba nations in the social media.
He said the hateful messages targeted at killing the renewed unity between the two ethnic nationalities were being fabricated and promoted by those who were afraid that the renewed bond would birth a new and better Nigeria that would be beneficial to all instead of a section of the country.
“I see that the EndSARS protest is the result of or reaction to the comprehensive failure of governance in Nigeria. How the genuine protest is exploited by various groups is a different thing. I saw a post on WhatsApp claiming that the protest is aimed by the south and (the) Igbo to remove Buhari from office. It is not impossible that the same source is worried about what looks like increasing understanding and collaboration between the East and West and wants to kill it by encouraging conflict between Yoruba and Igbo.
“There are those who want to be heard by taking responsibility for what they don’t know how it happened. We must see the protest itself as an idea whose time has come and treat it maturely and urgently if we want to have Nigeria.
“The same Nigeria which the World Bank said that parts of her were growing faster than the rest of the world in the 1950s and 60s is now called the poverty capital of the world.
“Our children are today making waves at the frontiers of technology in foreign lands, making it understood that black brain power is inferior to none. We must look beyond the scheme of opportunistic people and fast adopt a 12 zonal structure (with extensive reconstruction of zones of the Middle Belt) for the country.
“For fairness, each existing zone should yield two zones and of course, the Federal Government should be made to deal with only generally accepted federal functions.
“Everything is ready for the survival of one Nigeria. And it appears that the long range thinkers among those who thought they were born to dominate have seen the eclipse,” Ezeife said.
