Former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has urged a second Republic lawmaker, Junaid Mohammed, to withdraw his threat on the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Mohammed had threatened that IPOB members would pay with their blood if they attempt to attack President Muhammadu Buhari in Japan.

“IPOB will pay with their blood if they attempt an attack on Buhari,” he said.

The group’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu, had on Saturday called on Biafrans to ‘arrest’ and ‘disgrace’ Buhari when he arrives Japan for the seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) holding in the City of Yokohama from August 28 to 30.

In several tweets on Wednesday, Mr Fani-Kayode said Mohammed’s threat shows that Nigeria is on the “brink of a terrible conflagration which could be ignited by just one tiny spark.”

He said: “I have always had immense respect for Mohammed because he has been consistent in his criticisms of Buhari but let it be clearly understood that an attack on the Igbo will be regarded as an attack on the south. This is not 1966 and things are very different today.

“Any attempt to shed the blood of any southerner, for ANY reason, as a consequence of ANY plot or grand northern design will have catastrophic consequences.

“We can agree to disagree on issues and we may not even like one another but we should rule out threats of murder, mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide in all our discussions and debates and we should renounce and condemn them.”

The former minister added: “I urge Junaid Mohammed to withdraw his statement and to join the rest of us in renouncing violence and bloodshed.”