EndSARS: Northern Elders Warn Against Attack on Their People in The South

Posted by African Examiner African News, Featured, Latest Headlines, News, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Thursday, December 10th, 2020

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Northern Elders Forum, (NEF) on Wednesday issued a fresh warning against any form of attack on northerners’ living in any part of southern, Nigeria, saying enough is enough.

African Examiner reports that the Professor Anglo Abdullahi led association gave the warning in Enugu, Southeast, Nigeria when the Elders met with representatives of Northern groups residents in the Southeast geo-political zone of Nigeria.

Addressing the gathering, spokesman of NEF, Dr. Hakeem Ahmed, said the alleged attack on Northerners during the EndSARS protest was unprovoked and must not be repeated.

They said Northerners had the right to live in any part of Nigeria, and as such must not be marked for attacks under whatever guise.

According to him, “we were very concerned with the fate of our kith and kin who live in the southern part of the country.

He noted that as the EndSARS protest progressed, “when we observed that it was taking another dimension, we called up our youths to come off the streets, our young people are law abiding, they respected us and stopped, when we discovered that the protest has underlying intention and that it was going to jeopardize the security of everybody in this country.

“We put up a statement and said we think this protest should stop, we continued to observe the experience of our people in the Southern part of the country.

“Experiences that were very sad, we didn’t find reason our people should be subject of attack. Our people were not against this protest, they did not stop anybody, we have evidence.

“We took our time to assess these damages, we sent people who came and you gave graphic details of your experiences, they came back and we felt we have to come.

“What you went through must never be allowed to happen again; we have been to Rivers State where the Governor gave us his word and we are beginning to see the result of that engagement.

He stated that, “We are here in Enugu because it is the capital of the five South-East States. We will meet with the governor and we know he will relate our message to his colleagues.

“We are here to hear your grievances and to make sure it does not happen again, our people in the North welcome other people from other parts of the country, we give them assurances.

“We welcome them, they have right to live in the North, the same way that you have the right to live here.

He said: “We want a situation where no Northerner unjustly attacks anybody from the Southern part of the country and not one person from the North should be attacked here in the Southern part of the country.”

Our correspondents report that the meeting was attended by representatives of various Northern groups living in different parts of Southeast Nigeria.