Arewa’s quit notice to Ndigbo: It is unconstitutional, treasonable – Sen. Adokwe

As the quit notice issued to the Igbos to leave the Northern part of Nigeria by the Arewa Youths Forum continues to rage, our Correspondent, KINGSLEY CHUKWUKA, cornered Sen. Suleiman Asonya Adokwe, Senator representing Nasarawa South Senatorial District and chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Culture And National Orientation.

He described the call as not only unconstitutional but treasonable and urged the relevant security agenciesz to treat it as such.

*****The Arewa Youths recently issued a threat to the Igbos, giving them ultimatum to leave the North by October 2017, what’s your take?

As far as I am concerned, it is as a result of the chaos in the country. Anybody can wake up in Nigeria and either demand for secession or restructuring, or exercise some xenophobia attacks and all this is against the constitution, because the constitution of this country has guaranteed that every Nigeria citizen has the right to stay in any part of the country without discrimination, so the call for Igbos to leave the North is anti constitution, a treasonable felony by my own opinion and I expect that by now, the authority should have arrested those that made the call for Igbos to leave the North. They, Arewa group that made the call should be treated no differently to the treatment meted to the likes of IPOB, MASSOB and other perpetrators, because there is hardly any difference between their call and the call of Nnamdi Kanu that is agitating for Biafra and if the Arewa group is saying that all Igbo extraction should leave the North invariably they are agreeing with Nnamdi Kanu, that there should be a Birafa. I repeat, the call for Igbos to leave the North, is a treasonable felony and the Federal Government have to arrest the leader of the Arewa group and deal with them like they have been dealing with Nnamdi Kanu.

******What danger do you think that this threat posses to the country?
Like I said, it is a reflection of the chaos in the country, which possesses a lot of danger. The country is very divisive and in the last two years, it has been polarised with people who won election and has refused to transform themselves into statesmen. The All Progressives Congress (APC), led government are accusing themselves of nepotism, President Muhammadu Buhari was accused of nepotism and now, they are accusing the Vice President of the same nepotism. Kidnapping is in the increase, we thought we had downgraded Boko Haram, but every now and then they still create havoc with audacity, they were reported to have attacked Maiduguri recently. You cannot walk from here to there without the fear of running into one form of endangering situation or the other, herdsmen rampaging everywhere without hindrance and the government is not calling them to order. So we are almost in the state of anomy where anybody can just wake up and make some outrageous calls and statement. It portents danger for us and clearly reveals that the state need to exert some measure of power and authority over it citizens, because the duty of every government first and foremost is the provision of welfare and the protection of lives and property. If we are no longer safe in a country then government would have failed in its duties.

******Are you satisfied with the response of Nigerians to this threat?
All the Northern governors have risen to condemn it. The governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai went to the extent of calling for their arrest and I wish he will go ahead to arrest them, since they are in Kaduna State. The condemnation so far, is a good start, we hope government will go all out to bring the Arewa youths group to book.

******There is this thinking that the response by some Northern elders is not strong enough as some of them are justifying the Arewa declaration, do you agree with position?
Well, l have not heard that bit of news that some Northern elders are in support of what the youths have said, but if that news is true, then it is also condemnable. Even if IPOB made a call for a Biafran State and we condemned IPOB, we cannot go on the other hand to condone a similar call. The Arewa youths are not calling for a succession of Northern Nigeria, but are sacking everybody from the territory of Northern Nigeria, the difference is the same as far as I am concerned and should attract the same penalty, because it is a crime against the constitution.

******The Middle Belt have come up to say if the North should take this position they are on their own, and that they are welcoming the Igbos to the Middle Belt, as a senator in the Middle Belt, what is your take on that?
If the people of the Middle Belt made that statement, then they are consistent with the Nigeria entity, because every Nigerian is supposed to welcome every other Nigerian to his own enclave, because that is the position of the constitution as have been demonstrated by the Middle Belt, that we are citizens of the same country. So if the Arewa youths are saying they don’t want Igbos and the Middle Belts are of a different option then it simply means we are in line with the constitution.