The Northern youths’ group called Arewa Youths, under the aegis of the Northern Youth Coalition, has claimed that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, is trying to destabilize President Muhammadu Buhari’s government before 2019.
The group also urged all Northerners living in any part of Nigeria, to ignore any agitation, as IPOB’s aim is to provoke reactions or reprisal attacks.
Spokesman of the group, AbdulAziz Suleiman, alongside other leaders such as Yarima Shatima and Mastura Sharif gave the statement in Kano on Wednesday, during a press conference at the Nigerian Union of Journalists’ Press Centre.
According to the group, “all the violent activities playing out are well planned to escalate by 2019, and starting from 2018 to prevent a successful conduct of elections and eventually the collapse of this Buhari government and democracy in Nigeria.
“In this situation, it is essential that the north and northerners remain restrained and refuse to be provoked into reprisals which is the ultimate hope of the conflict instigators.
“The agitations and disturbances that have been ongoing ceaselessly since the coming of Buhari/Osibanjo administration are aimed at rendering the country practically ungovernable and ushering in of anarchy and instability, thereby occasioning a change of government by whatever means.
“And the singling out of Buhari for attacks is a tactics to cause inter-regional crisis possibly leading to general unrest.”
