Northerners living in Southern regions vow to maintain peace

Northerners living in South-East and South-South regions have pledged to maintain and promote peace in the zones.

The Northerners, comprising of members of the Northern Traders Association and the Northern Friends Neighbourhood Association, also promised to ensure that unemployed northerners in the regions are meaningfully engaged to avoid compounding insecurity problems in the areas.

This is part of the resolutions reached at the end of a meeting by the two groups on Friday in Enugu.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, the Enugu State Legal Adviser of the Northern Traders Association, Ilyas Muhammadu Akdoi, said the association was worried over the activities of unemployed northerners, roaming about the streets of the zones.

He lamented that the activities of the unemployed ones was affecting people’s perception about Northerners, stressing that it is equally threatening their businesses in the regions.

Akdoi, however, said they would not fold their hands and watch the unemployed ones, mostly youths, destroy the goodwill the northerners had enjoyed, stressing that they are out to deepen their acceptance in Igbo land.

According to him, “we will continue to work with the various state governments in the South-East and South-South regions, as a way of cementing the relationship and understanding between them.

Also, the chairman of the Northern Friends Neighbourhood Association in South-East and South-South, Ahmed Saidu, said the association will work to promote cooperation and unity among Northerners in the zones.

“The reason for forming this association is that sometimes, because when we see road accidents and we do not have most of our peoples’ contact in case our people are involved.

“So this platform we have opened has already linked relationship and made us familiarise with ourselves in South East, so that whenever things happen, we can call each other from different states and places.

“Again, we have people from the North, who package themselves without having anything doing. They will be stranded, walking around and doing unnecessary things we are not really happy about.

“We want to talk to the people coming from the North that before you come, you must have something doing and also become law-abiding citizens,” the chairman said.

Saidu then urged the public to report any northerner fomenting problem to the Hausa community closest to them, noting that any reported case would be severally dealt with. (NAN)