The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has reacted to the demand, on Monday, by the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide that an additional state be created in the South-East to address agitations for Biafra Republic.
Ohanaeze had also demanded autonomy for the zone.
Speaking to Daily Trust, ACF National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Yawe, reminded Ohanaeze that a constitutional amendment would be needed to have an additional state.
He said: “It’s almost impossible for a civilian administration to create states, but if they (Ohanaeze) insist they want President Muhammadu Buhari, who has barely two years to go, to discuss the issue of state creation with them, then let them go on.
“But we are assuring them that their demands cannot be easily met.”
He queried why the Igbo socio-cultural group was silent when the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, was “hell bent on pursuing a course which was an open declaration of war on Nigeria.”
“His tart language in referring to all other ethnic groups and their respected leaders; his open desecration of the Nigerian Constitution were very provocative. We know Igbos and the leadership of Ohanaeze as responsible, cultured people.”
He said the Igbo, ably led by a more responsible Nnamdi Azikiwe, had achieved a lot for Nigeria and for themselves.
He said Nigerians had thought after the “no victor, no vanquished” tragedy, the Igbo would abandon secession as an option but yet, “here we were with an upstart Igbo young man who never witnessed a war, let alone a civil war talking about as if it was a tea or Christmas party.”
He Ohanaeze for distancing itself from Kanu and stressed that “they as Nigerians are free to meet with the Federal Government and table their grievances while it is left for the government to provide answers to their yearnings.”
