Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council, the youth wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on Wednesday said that Igbo cannot leave the North after spending over N44trn to develop the region.
The group also instructed the Igbo living in the North to prepare to defend themselves against possible attack by Northerners.
The Ohanaeze youth wing was reacting to the three-month ultimatum given to Igbo to leave the Northern parts of the country over the agitation for Biafra in the South-East.
A coalition of Northern groups, including the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, had, on Tuesday, told all Igbo in the North to leave the region by October 1.
Reacting to the development, the Ohanaeze Youth Council urged Igbo in the North to “stay put. Igbo cannot leave the North after spending over N44trn to develop the region,” Ohanaeze youth wing declared.
Addressing journalists after a meeting in Enugu, National President of the OYC, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said the ultimatum issued to Igbo by the Northern groups was a call to arms, and should be treated as such by security agencies.
The theme of the emergency meeting was ‘Igbo mandate against genocide.’