The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), has given perpetrators a “last warning on the incessant attacks and killings of Northerners” in the region, saying it will no longer fold its hands and watch its people killed and their businesses destroyed.
The AYCF was reacting to Tuesday’s attack by gunmen at the Abia Cattle Market where eight Northern traders and an unspecified number of cows were killed, while many others sustained injuries.
While condemning the attack at a press conference in Kaduna on Wednesday, the AYCF National President, Yerima Shettima, said the group was “seriously saddened and deeply concerned about the murder of Northerners resident in Abia, who are doing legitimate business.”
In a communique at the end of the press conference, Shettima said:
“We are also deeply touched by the report of killings of Northern traders, with scores of others sustaining various degrees of injuries following the senseless attack at the Abia Cattle Market on Tuesday.
“Pursuant to this development, we in the AYCF, wish to state as follows:
We condemn in totality this dastardly attack on innocent citizens from the North trading to earn a living. We welcome the prompt response of security agencies and the Abia State Government for going after the killers and rushing the injured ones to the hospital.
We urge the Abia State Government to pursue its promise to bring the killers to book, in the spirit of national unity and stability.
“The AYCF will be following closely the efforts of Abia State Government to fulfill its promise of providing compensation for the families and survivors of the attack.
“We pray this should be last bad news we would hear about innocent Northern traders, from not just Abia but the entire Southeast, in the spirit of national unity and stability.
“By this communique, we are giving the perpetrators the last warning to desist from this dastardly act as further provocation could lead to unsavory circumstances. Enough is enough.”
