Following a letter by the coalition of northern groups, including the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo urging the Acting President to facilitate the process of allowing Igbo to leave Nigeria, the pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere has slammed the youth for their position.

The spokesperson for the group, Yinka Odumakin, in an interview with Punch, asked Osinbajo to tell the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to arrest leaders of the northern groups.

Odumakin argued that the letter signified danger to the southerners in the North.

He stated, “This is a confirmation of what we have said so far. For almost 12 days after their inciting comments, none of them has been arrested by the police.

“That they are giving it back to the Acting President shows that they have an assignment they are carrying out for their sponsors. It also shows that the elders have failed to caution their youths.”

Meanwhile, the Northern Elders Forum and the Northern Elders Council have disagreed on the call by the coalition of northern youths to the acting President to organise a “referendum that will ease out the Igbo out of the country.”

The Chairman of the NEC, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, said the referendum would be unconstitutional.

He added that “any secession could only be actualised by war.”

But the Secretary of the NEF, Prof Ango Abdullahi, believed that the northern youths had made a workable recommendation since both warring parties had not shifted their grounds.

Yakasai stated, “You know that in the Nigerian constitution, there is no place where there is a national referendum for secession. If they (the youths) don’t know what they are doing, you should know what you are doing.

“Only the Independent National Electoral Commission can organise a referendum. That is all. Nobody has the power to organise a referendum. The acting President has no power to organise a national referendum. We are governed by our constitution.

“The only way for any group to secede is through war. There is no provision for any part to secede legally.”