You can’t ask us to leave Niger Delta- Hausa, Yoruba leaders tell Ijaw Militants

Following recent threats by Niger Delta militants that Northerners and Easterners should quit the Niger Delta, youth leaders of the Hausa and Yoruba communities in Warri, Delta State have queried the rationale behind the threat, saying they have equal rights with the Ijaws as bonafide citizens of Nigeria, even as they called on the leadership of the Ijaw Nation to caution their youths in their quest to secede from Nigeria.

The Hausa youth leader and business man resident at the Hausa Quarters in Igbudu, Warri, Mallam Rabiu Abdulraman said while they concede the right of the Ijaw militants to agitate for whatever they claim to be their right, they should also remember that other law abiding Nigerian citizens who believe in the unity of the country have their right to be protected and live in any part of the country, noting that violence can be perpetrated by any group or ethnic nationality if they so wish.

“Look, these militants have taken this nonsense too far by asking us to return to our region. Some of us have stayed here since birth. Nobody should be threatening us to leave. What about our businesses here. Are there no Niger Delta indigenes in other parts of the country and should they also be driven home too? Where are you even requesting them to go and stay immediately or you want them to become refugees for no just cause. We have not disturbed them in anyway since this resurgence of militancy. Boko Haram is doing theirs in the North East and you just started yours here. Why did you wait until President Buhari time (sic) to do this if not that you want to cripple his government for selfish reasons. We are not afraid of anything, but chasing us away will have its multiplier effect on the socio-political as well as economic well-being of all Nigerians and everybody will be losers without discrimination, so what are they trying to tell us. We are not fools and nobody should think the arms’ market is known only to them. Even then, when did all the other tribes in the Niger Delta agree with them in this obnoxious decision to drive us out of the region”, he queried.

A youth cattle seller of Yoruba extraction, Mr. Abiodun Oguntomisin who sells at Effurun, near Warri, stated that no group can chase away the Yoruba people from any part of Nigeria, saying that the Yoruba also have militant group in Nigeria known to all and warned the Niger Delta militants to rethink their decision for the benefit of themselves and their generation yet unborn.

He opined, “nobody will benefit from this unbridled brigandage of the Niger Delta militants. Their leaders and our so-called human rights groups should call them to order now instead of keeping quiet in the face of the wreckage they are causing the nation because of imagined or perceived marginalization by successive governments. This thing did not start with President Buhari. President Jonathan just left government yesterday. Where are all the monies he pumped into the region? These boys should ask their leaders where all the funds allocated to the development of the region through different ministries and parastatals manned by Niger Deltans went into, if not the hands of their own leaders and elites?”.

The militant groups recently notified the Federal Government of their intention to declare a republic on August 1, 2016 if their demands are not met.

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