Timi Frank:

A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Timi Frank, has appealed to Northern region leaders, Governors, Emirs and political leaders to advise youths of the region against making inflammatory statements.

Frank in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja while reacting to a call by Northern youths to Igbos to leave the region, said such call could build tensions across the country.

He, therefore, called on the Federal Government to take necessary steps to douse tension that may have been generated as a result of the threat.

Frank also cautioned youths across the country not to give in to the antics of some politicians who may want the country divided at all cost.

“I call on Nigerian youths from the South or North to drop whatever differences planted or being nurtured against each other and come together to build a more united and developed nation,” he said.

He maintained that every section of the country was important, adding that youths across the regions were expected to play important roles in its development.

He urged youths to preach peace and not to give in to sentiments, stressing that they were expected to right the wrongs of the past.

This, Frank said, they could do by coming up with innovations that would ensure the country`s development in the interest of all, rather than fanning “the embers of disunity“.

He, however, called on security agencies to ensure the protection of Northerners in the South and the Southerners in the North, and pleaded with Northern youths to give peace a chance.

The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Arewa Youth Development Foundation, Arewa Students Forum and Northern Emancipation Network, recently at a news conference, gave Igbos in the North an ultimatum to leave the region.

“As a prelude, we call on Igbos currently residing in any part of Northern Nigeria to relocate within two weeks and northerners in the East should do likewise,’’ the group had said.

(NAN)