The leaders of the Northern Elders Forum NEF, have distanced themselves from the comments made by their spokesperson
Abdullahi Ango, on the controversial ultimatum some Northern Youths gave to
Igbos residing in the region. Ango at a press conference in Kaduna state yesterday, claimed the elders were in total support of the youths.
However the deputy chairman of NEF, Elder Paul Unongo, says Abdullahi is on his own
in backing the ignorant youths.
“I am the Deputy Leader of the
Northern Elders Forum and
Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Sule is
the leader. So, only the two of us can speak for the forum on sensitive matter like this.
Therefore, if Professor Ango Abdullahi is backing those ignorant youths, then he is
speaking for himself. We cannot
support the nonsense those boys
said. We fought civil war with our
blood to keep Nigeria one. So, any
Nigerian can live in any part of the
country he feels like. Igbos are
welcome in the North, they are
welcome in Yoruba land and my own village in Tiv land and they have right to pursue their daily bread and own property. We couldn’t have killed three million people to keep Nigeria one and come back and allow these
kids (the Northern Youth Groups) to insult our intelligence. We knew why we fought the war, we knew why we killed the people we loved. We knew why we made the sacrifice of three million men dead. So, Northern Elders
Forum cannot take same position as those young men, if at all they took a position. So, if the young men cannot build a nation, they should not destroy the one we put our lives on the line to build for them. We cannot allow young men who did not fight the civil war with us to destroy our
country, because Nigeria cannot
afford another civil war,” he said.
