N’Delta militants shun Buhari, insist Northerners, Yorubas must vacate region by Oct 1

Despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s national broadcast on Monday that every Nigeria is free to live and do business in any part of the country, militants in the oil region of the Niger Delta have insisted that Yorubas and northerners living in the region must vacate by October 1.

The group reinstated their threat in a statement released and signed by John Duku (Niger Delta Watchdogs); Ekpo Ekpo (Niger Delta Volunteers ); Osarolor Nedam (Niger Delta Warriors ); Henry Okon Etete (Niger Delta Peoples Fighters); Asukwo Henshaw (Bakassi Freedom Fighters); Ibinabo Horsfall (Niger Delta Movement for Justice ); Duke Emmanson (Niger Delta Fighters Network) and Inibeghe Adams (Niger Delta Freedom Mandate).

They stated: “We wish to thank all well – meaning Nigerians who threw their weight behind restructuring and disassociated themselves from the President’s position on restructuring. We want to remind him (the President) that without restructuring, there would be no united Nigeria,” the group said.

Accusing Buhari of not believing in “other Nigerians apart from those from the North,” the agitators wondered how the president could say that the unity of Nigeria was not negotiable.

The group went further to say, “The Coalition of Arewa Youths’ quit notice to Igbo was in collaboration with the Northern elders, the President’s cabal and top security chiefs from the North. They were properly consulted by the youths.

Read also: Arewa youths take sides with IPOB, insist on Biafra referendum

“Therefore, we maintain our previous position that Northerners and Yorubas should vacate the Niger Delta region before October 1, 2017, until justice is done. We can no longer tolerate this injustice, marginalisation and being treated as slaves in our own land.

“We, therefore, demand that the Northerners should return 70 per cent and Yorubas 15 per cent of their oil blocks to the Niger Delta people for justice to prevail.”

The militants’ insistence on its quit notice is coming on the heels of President Buhari’s directive to service chiefs to clampdown on Boko Haram terrorists, Biafra and other agitators for breakup of the country.

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