After taken a critical implication of the threat issued to the Ndigbo living in the northern Nigeria by some groups in the region, the Southern Kaduna Peoples’ Union (SOKAPU) Friday ruled that the entire people of Southern Kaduna will never be part of “toxic fumes of hate and bigotry belched out against the Igbo people.”
Reacting on the 3-months quit threat given to the Igbo people residing in the north by some groups from the region, SOKAPU said the lgbos did not in any way offended its people, hence they could not be part of a misguided group.
SOKAPU, in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Mr. Yakubu Kuzamani said “we are a hospitable and accommodating people. We assure the Igbos that their property and assets (movable or immovable) in Southern Kaduna are secured, assured and guaranteed.”
“The security of all Igbos in Southern Kaduna is guaranteed. We will continue to accommodate the Igbos and all persons of goodwill towards us irrespective of their primordial, ethnic or religious cleavages,” said SOKAPU.
The Union said, the expressed desire of the Igbos to have a separate country of their own is an inalienable right which has not in any way, “in our opinion, translated into a crime or provocation to us in Southern Kaduna, the North or the Nigerian State.”
“The lgbos have so far in our estimation merely exercised their rights to gather and to protest peacefully. They exercised their constitutional rights to acquire property in the nooks and crannies of this country. These are not criminal actions.
“We were not consulted by the so-called Arewa groups before issuing the Kaduna Declaration despite the fact that Southern Kaduna is in the North West.
“The declarants, it appears clearly, do not see us as part of the North. None of the 53 ethnic nationalities of Southern Kaduna were consulted,” said SOKAPU.
