Northern Traders Boycott Food Supply To South-East Over Killings By Gunmen

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Some northern businesses that conduct business between the North and South-East areas have started a strike.

By implication, trading with the southeast region is now prohibited by the northern parties. Due to the claimed murder of their people by members of the outlawed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, the organizations issued orders for commodity dealers and truck drivers to stay away from the area (IPOB).

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Dr. Auwal Abdullahi Aliyu, the coordinator of the Northern Consensus Forum, revealed this to newsmen.

He claimed that the traders went on a three-day warning strike as a result of the recent deaths of at least 100 northerners in the southeast.

He asserted that the strike was necessary to stop young people in the north from enforcing their own laws.

Aliyu asserted that the strike, which began on Thursday (yesterday), had begun to have a positive impact and that inhabitants in the affected area, security agencies, and northern state governors had all been notified.

“We have blocked the roads linking the North to the East ranging from Benue, Nasarawa, Kwara and Plateau states among others, and the truck drivers are cooperating with us,” he said.

Gunmen allegedly executing a five-day sit-at-home order in Enugu State last Saturday attacked and set a police patrol car on fire in the New Market area, according to a report from Anaedoonline.ng.

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It was also claimed that some All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters were slain by gunmen lately in Anambra for disobeying a kangaroo sit-at-home order.

In response to the strike, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), told Newsmen that the traders had acted appropriately.

Shettima claimed in a phone call on Friday morning that the administration had shown little concern for the brutal murders of northern traders in the southeast.

He said, “The truth of the matter is that they are at liberty to embark on strike and suspend all the movements of foodstuffs to the south because this cannot continue.

“If the government cannot protect them, they should find a way to protect themselves. So, I can concur with them to stay off action for now and let us see what happens because it is never done anywhere.

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“We are a country where the government’s primary responsibility is to protect lives and property. This happens on a daily basis where they have been killing their men and nobody talks. The government does not respond to them.”

According to Malam Badamasi Muhammad, the Arewa Progressives Forum’s public relations officer for 17 states in southern Nigeria, many northerners have moved from the South East to the North as a result of the constant attacks. He asserted that only a small minority of people still live in large cities, and they do so in terror.

“We used to have many of our people in the villages of South East before; mainly petty traders, those selling beef skewers, cobblers, etc. All have now left due to the activities of the Biafra agitators. It is getting worse these days,” he said.

He endorsed the choice to stop commodities from the North from traveling to the South-East, claiming that doing so would save the lives of people concerned.

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“We are very happy with this measure. It’s an action that will send messages to the governors and traditional rulers and other stakeholders in the zone. Our members are being murdered daily.

“Happily, the federal government has been taking action by deploying huge security formations within the cities, these killers need to be arrested and brought to book. If a young man will make a tweet and will be traced by security men and arrested, what stops the same security agencies from tracing these killers?” he asked.

 

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