Govs’ Hostage: Northern Youths Threaten Retaliation

Sequel to the incident that led to four northern governors being held hostage in Rivers State on Tuesday, northern youths have said that they will retaliate if the ‘persistent humiliation’ of their leaders continues.

The youths under the auspices of Arewa Rapid Response Network (ARRN) warned that the North will no longer tolerate a situation where their leaders are made to face a gangster-like humiliation in the way it was done in Rivers state.

According to the National Coordinator of the group, Yakubu Ahmed B.K in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Kaduna, “Northern youths equally have many options including the option of retaliating and if anybody is in doubt, then Jonathan and his cohorts should be held responsible if a repeat of the Rivers show of shame leads to other unpalatable events that may follow.

“The north has received enough humiliation in the course of the Jonathan presidency with criminal war lords calling our leaders unprintable names, calling for war against the North, making very inflammatory statements and challenging the basis of our nationhood without any effort by the presidency to call them to order.

“The fact that Rivers state has been on the boil (and is still boiling) arising from the badly mismanaged imbroglio between the desperate pro-Jonathan forces bent on forcing the president on the ruling PDP in the 2015 general elections and the Governor Rotimi Amaechi supporters is no longer in contention.

“It is clear to all that the presidency is the chief instigator of the violence in Port Harcourt, which has almost made the state ungovernable leading to the taking over of the functions of the Rivers state House of Assembly by the House of Representatives. As things stand now, the crisis in Rivers state is threatening to engulf the nation owing to the risky dimension the problem is taking.

“While the crisis may look entirely as the business of the PDP, we must be careful not to stir up other chain of events that would snowball into an uncontrollable national crisis capable of leading to other unsavoury events that may truncate our nascent and vulnerable democracy.