A coalition of Middle Belt Youths has asked herdsmen to vacate the region before October 1 this year.

The youths under the aegis of Middle Belt Renaissance Forum, which met in Abuja over the weekend, threatened total war at the expiration of the ultimatum.

The meeting which was attended by representatives of youth groups from all the states making up the middle belt region discussed extensively pressing issues confronting the area.

A communiqué by its convener, Comrade Jones Simon Alfa, urged governors from the region to be alive to governance and desist from harassing media practitioners.

“The Middle Belt Governors should sit up to their responsibility of governing the people who voted them to power instead of the sudden primitive accumulation of wealth at the detriment of the suffering voters,” it reads.

“The Middle Belt Youths will no longer take the recklessness of the Governors in arresting Media Practitioners, Bloggers and Social Media Crusaders e.g Kaduna Governor and that of Kogi who are clear examples.

“The region is not in any way part of the agitation for Igbo to vacate the north on October. We have been living with the Igbo peacefully and will not join in the call for secession

“All herdsmen should vacate the Middle Belt Region before 1st October, 2017 or there will be total war if they are not ready to live in peace.”

The group called on the core north to stop using the middle belt people in achieving what it said was selfish political, economic aims and objectives.

The youths stated that the middle belt people are not northerners.