IYC describes calls by northern groups to Igbo as senseless, baseless

Eric Omare

Says Ijaw nation not part of Biafra
The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has described as baseless and senseless the demand by some northern youth groups for Igbo in the North to move out of their region.
President of the IYC Worldwide, Eric Omare, who spoke with The Guardian in Yenagoa, said they believed that it was criminal-minded persons who want to hide under the umbrella of speaking for the North to loot property belonging to the Igbo in the region.

Also, the IYC while reacting to a statement credited to a leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Solomon Chukwu, published in one of the national dailies (not The Guardian) on Tuesday, maintained that the Ijaw nation and Ijawland were not and would not be part and parcel of the territory of Biafra.

In a statement by its spokesman, Henry Iyalla, the group said the Ijaw and Niger Delta people had always maintained separate and distinct identity from their Igbo brothers of the South-East.

Omare, who said that there was absolutely nothing wrong in the Igbo agitation for self-determination as recognised even under the United Nations (UN) Charter, said: “Therefore, the Igbo agitation for Biafra cannot justify the demand to move out of northern Nigeria. We believe it is criminal-minded persons who want to hide under the umbrella of speaking for the North to loot property belonging to Igbo in the North.

“We call on security agencies to, as a matter of urgency, move against the brains behind the ultimatum to Igbo in the North. The security agencies must be proactive and not allow the deed to be done before acting. Furthermore, we wish to remind those retrogressive elements that no amount of such empty threats would break the will of the people to have Nigeria renegotiated.”