A coalition of northern groups has declared a town hall meeting in Kano State to finalise on the quit notice issued to the Igbo residing in the region.

One of the leaders of the group and President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Shettima Yarima said the initial quit notice issued in the Kaduna declaration still stands pending the outcome of the town hall meetings that would take place in all sub-regions of the north.

However, Channels TV’s correspondent reported that the group said there was no course for alarm as it did not intend to use force in driving the Igbo out of the region.

“As far as I’m concerned we have not withdrawn it officially, but we are still on review. We will review the situation God-willing and what we said is very clear: If you believed in Nigeria stay in Nigeria, but if you believed in Biafra, please go back to your region where you are building your Biafra and do your Biafra. To us, we don’t intend to use any force. We don’t intend to use any violence and we don’t intend to use any means to chase anybody out. But we are saying also if you believe in Biafra, please go to your Biafra area, But if you believe in Nigeria, please let us build a better society.” Yarima stated.

On the issue of restructuring Nigeria, Yarima said: “We need to have a country before we think of restructuring. So let us see how we can put Nigeria together. Then when the country is put in place properly, we can now begin to think of who gives what and who takes what, then we go into restructuring issue which I have been advocating for 15 years.”

Spokesperson of the group Abdul-Aziz Suleiman told Channels Television that from day one, it was the Igbo themselves that had been seeking to quit and they, the northern groups were not ready to accept any threat to the unity of Nigeria and what it stood for.

Speaking further, he stressed that the town hall meeting was a follow up to the Kaduna declaration.

“The main issue is Kaduna declaration. We wanted people to understand that the essence of the Kaduna declaration was not only about quit notice and for the last 50 years it was the Igbo who were agitating to quit Nigeria.”(Channels TV)

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