Barely four days after Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) ordered Igbos to vacate the zone in three months, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has ordered their arrest.
The IGP gave the directive at a meeting with commissioners of police and other top-ranking police officers in Abuja on Thursday.
Mr. Idris insisted that no individual or group had the right to ask anybody to leave any part of the country where they reside.
He also directed all assistant Inspectors-General of Police and police commissioners in the North to investigate and arrest anybody or group threatening people to leave the area.
“As Commissioners of Police and Assistant Inspectors-General of police, we have the responsibility to stop this group of persons from carrying out their threats,” Mr. Idris said.
“I want us to be at alert to ensure that such persons or groups are stopped at all cost from carrying out their threats.
“No individual has the authority to stop anybody from looking for his daily bread,” Mr. Idris said.
The IGP explained that the Nigerian Constitution guaranteed every citizen the right to live in any part of the country chosen by he or she.
He, therefore, advised state police commissioners across the country to beef up security in their formations as security challenges were taking different dimensions.
He said the force had started the establishment of some operational units in the commands across the country to tackle emerging security challenges.
“We are facing new security challenges in the country and we have to respond to it,” Mr. Idris said, adding, “We are trying to enhance our capacity with the establishment of these units, taking into consideration the new security challenges in the country.”
The IGP also called on State Governors to support the force by establishing special units for an effective response to security threats across the country.
On the kidnapped six students from the Igbonla Model College, Epe area of Lagos, Mr. Idris said the police marine would be trained to flood the creeks.
He expressed concern with the citing of schools close to the sea where miscreants always have easy access.
To check the increasing abuse of sirens by unauthorized persons, the IGP said a task force would be constituted across the country to check the situation.
He argued that some people were now using the sirens to commit crimes and must be stopped.
He said, “We are going to check the excesses of these individuals who use the siren and spy number plate.”
Northern youth under the auspices of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum had on June 6, issued an ultimatum to South-Easterners to leave the north.
The group,which issued the threat at a news conference in Kaduna, gave a three-month ultimatum to Igbos living in the North to leave.
It also advised northerners living in the South-east to return to the north.
The group attributed the ultimatum to the constant agitation by the Igbo ethnic group to have their own independent country.
With additional report from NAN
