Ignore Threats from “Northern Youths” – FG

Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Lai Mohammed

The Federal Government has urged all well-meaning individuals and groups in the country to ignore all forms of threats issued by geo-political groups with the aim of  causing disaffection.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made the appeal when he briefed State House correspondents after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), which was presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

He made the statement in reaction to a declaration by a coalition of Northern Youth groups ordering Igbos out of the region on or before the 1st of October 2017.

“The issue of one or two groups issuing a statement that is capable of destabilising the polity and then being responded to by another group, I think it did not just start today or did not start yesterday. What I want to assure you is that security organizations are very, very much on top of this matter,” Mohammed said.

The minister, however, dismissed the ultimatum and assured that the country’s security agencies were on top of the matter.

The Northern States Governors’ Forum has also condemned the action.

According to NTA, Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, Chairman of the forum, speaking on Wednesday in Maiduguri said: “On behalf of the Governors of the 19 Northern States, we totally condemn such irresponsible pronouncements by those groups, we condemn, we disown, and we are totally distancing ourselves from those faceless groups who don’t have the mandate of the people of Northern Nigeria to make such loud pronouncements.”

In the statement released by the forum, the governors called for the arrest of the youths, and said they were in touch with the heads of security agencies.

“We wish to call on the security agencies to beam their lenses on these groups, and unearth the faces behind the mask,” the statement said.

Kashim Shettima said the “Kaduna Declaration” released by the northern youth groups was in line with the recent trend of arms discovery in the country and coup rumours.

“Some months back, there were cases of importation of arms, illegal importation of arms intercepted at the ports, then we started hearing rumours of a coup d’etat.”

In the declaration released by the youth groups, they had accused the governors of the northern states of “appearing helplessly unperturbed.”

The Kaduna Government had on Wednesday ordered the arrest of the youths.