The Hausa Man Behind Igbo Quit Notice Lives In Lagos- Falana

Rights activist and constitutional lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) said yesterday that the leader of the northern youth group that issued a 3 months ultimatum to the Igbo to vacate the North does not live in the North, but in Lagos.

He spoke at a news conference organised by organised labour in Abuja. He said: “The man who is giving quit notice does not live in the North; he lives in Lagos. .

I am saying this, Shettima Yerima lives in Lagos. He is a Lagos man. So to live in Lagos and be giving quit notice is not the answer.” Condemning Northern Elders Forum spokesman and ex V.C of Ahmadu Bello University, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, for supporting the quit notice, the lawyer said: .

“On May 23, 1986, four young people were killed at the ABU. Prof. Ango Abdullahi was the V.C of ABU. When those students were killed by the police, he came out and said only four students were killed. That angered Nigerians, particularly Nigerian students, and there were protests. .

One of the universities where that protest was very successful was the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The man who led that protest was the late Chima Ubani. The state did not like that there was a national protest against the killing of students. .

The government did not arrest people in the North; they did not arrest students who were demonstrating in the West. The Babangida regime went for Chima Ubani and arraigned him and 8 of his colleagues under a military decree that required that they be sentenced to death. .

I left Lagos and went to Enugu to defend those young men and we got them freed. When they returned to campus, the V.C expelled them. Again, I went to court and got them freed.

This story is important because a Hausa V.C invited police and they killed 4 young Hausa people. An Igbo young man led that protest in the East against injustice. .

There are lawyers in the east, but a Yoruba lawyer from from the west went to free them. So, we must look at those things that tie us together and not those ones that the ruling class are using to divide our people.”