Group gives 21 days ultimatum to almajarai to leave South East

An Igbo social cultural pressure group, Igbo National Council (INC), has given a 21-day ultimatum to almajirai that have, in the past few weeks, moved into the South East from their various abodes in the North, to leave the region.

INC National President, Chilos Godsent, in a statement in Owerri yesterday, said the almajirai might be terrorists in disguise who have flooded the Igbo land to cause havoc.

He said: “The INC is worried about the hidden motive of this clandestine movement of suspected trained Jihadist militants, mercenaries and ammunition into southern Nigeria at this period of our existence.

“May we use this medium to sound a note of warning to the sponsors of this project, the suspected militant terrorists and these mercenaries to have a rethink as they will be surprise on the level of resistance they will face.

“We wish to inform these mercenaries and their sponsors that no nation has a greater monopoly of violence over others and that the Igbo race are not known to be cowards and can never be cowards in the face of this threat to our collective existence and self-preservation.

“The INC, in alliance with other self-determination groups, pro-democracy and human rights originations therefore, give these suspected Jihadist militant terrorists and mercenaries 21 days with effect from May 23, 2020 to vacate our community forests, towns and states and immediately go back to their states or countries, or have themselves to blame.

“We also call on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Abubakar Adamu, to set up a special joint security task force to properly search and scrutinise all trucks, trailers and luxury busses plying our roads to avert the avoidable calamity that may befall Nigeria if these suspected terrorist militants and mercenaries are allowed to strike.”

Meanwhile, Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide, yesterday, said the almajiri system, which has posed big challenge to the nation, would be a thing of the past once the country was restructured.

Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the apex Igbo body, Chuks Ibegbu, who spoke on the heels of the reported migration of large number of northern youths to the southern and South eastern parts of Nigeria, lamented that the Nigerian system had been skewed over the years.

He warned people illegally trying to infiltrate in Igboland to desist from such move while blaming northern leaders for the almajiri institution which, according to him, they now want to shift to the South.

“When they spend much time in politics, power play, seeking for power and its appurtenances, they neglect most of their children while sending their own to the best universities in the world. Ndigbo want the talakawas in the North to ask their past rulers relevant questions and why they resist all steps to make Nigeria a restructured nation for the benefit of all,” Ibegbu said.