Ultimatum to Igbos: Hausa traders desert C’River State in droves

For fear of being attack, businessmen and traders from northern extraction have deserted streets in cross river. The people who do small businesses such as mobile tailoring work, selling of onions, wrist watch and perfumes and those that have stores have deserted the streets and closed their stores.
Our correspondent who went round some streets in the state including Bokobiri, a Hausa settlement areas, Calabar road, watt, Marian road, Housing estates, Beach markets, Ika Ika Oqua and others across the state, observed that most of the Hausa businessmen and traders including shoe menders deserted the streets for fear of attack.

Condemning the utterances of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), a Hausa man who gave his name as Mohammed called on law enforcement officers to arrest those behind the order of eviction of the Igbos noting that he, himself and others who do business in the state have never been attack and wondered why their brothers in the North should asked the Igbos to leave.

“We have been doing business in this state for several years and nobody attacked us, even in the North, nobody attack our brothers and sisters, what justification has they to order the eviction of the Igbos, they have none, please let them allow us leave here in peace and do our business too”
Another elderly Hausa man who refused to disclosed his identity lamented the trend and called on security agents to leave up to expectation by arresting those he described as enemy of progress, “We should not allow this division to happen in our time, we have been leaving as one, it shouldn’t be now that people should ask somebody to quit, what about the multi millions naira investment such people have”

While the call for the arrest of the members of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) continued, the group still insisted that the order for the Igbos to leave the nineteen northern states on or before October 1st 2017 still stands. “The threat of arrest by the government of Kaduna State will not stop them from insisting that people of Igbo extraction should leave the north” the group stated.

The group, a coalition of some northern groups, insisted on its stance that Igbos leave the 19 northern states within three months. One of the leaders of the group, who read their declaration, Abdulaziz Suleiman had said they held a meeting in Kaduna on Wednesday after the threat of arrest and decided that “there will be no retreat, no surrender”.

Contrary to the position by Kaduna State government, the people said they are not advocating violence. “Our declaration did not mention violence at all. The Igbo have consistently insisted that they don’t want to be in Nigeria, let them therefore, go back to their places “They don’t believe in Nigeria, so, we also don’t believe in them,” he said. Mr. Suleiman also accused Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State of playing politics over the matter.

“Where was El Rufai when the Igbos gave the Fulani ultimatum to leave their areas? “Where was he when over 500 northerners were killed in Ile Ife? These people just politicize everything. “Because he wants to run for President, he chose to ignore his people and appease the Igbo? Good luck to him,” he said. Like Mr. El-Rufai, the Nigerian government has also condemned the call by the northern coalition, assuring Nigerians that the threat by the group should be ignored.