BY EMMA AMAIZE, South-South Editor

WILL the Federal Government and governors of the southern States be able to talk aggrieved groups in the southern part of the country out of launching reprisal attacks against northerners in the south,despite the provoking assault and butchering of their kinsmen in the north by the Boko-Haram sect, and for how long can they hold them back?

This is the puzzle in the south in the last few days following a 21-day ultimatum issued on Tuesday by a group, Niger Delta Indigenous Movement for Radical Change, NDIMRC, to northerners to quit the south or face daring consequences.

Muslim leaders meet over new threat

The ultimatum has generated fresh panic among northerners living in the southern part of the country. By Wednesday evening, Muslim leaders in Delta state and other parts of the south were meeting in their separate states to appraise the development and agree on the way forward.

The group vowed to methodically carry out its plot to kill any northerner in the south of the country if after 21 days; they remained in the region, saying no security agent could guarantee their safety, if their threat was taken for granted.

In a press statement jointly issued by its president, Nelly Emma; secretary, John Sailor and Public Relations Officer, Mukoro Stanley, the NDIMRC described the senseless killing of Christians in the North by Boko Haram as evil.

21-day ultimatum

Specifically, the NDIMRC ordered all northerners in the south-west, south –east and south-south to return home within 21 days or be ready for reprisal attacks.

To perfect its plan, the group equally called on Christians in the north to move back home. “We want to make it known to the Sultan of Sokoto and other northern leaders that we are aware of their game plan to frustrate President Jonathan. The president is a nice man; if not, a lot of people would have been killed by now as the late president, Musa Yar’Adua did in the Niger-Delta region by killing innocent people of Gbaramatu Kingdom of Delta State.”

The NDIMRC urged Christians living in the North to come home in order not to be trapped in the north when they would start carrying out reprisal attacks in the south.

An eye for an eye

Given the Biblical Moses canon of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, many persons in the southern part of the country had expected fire for fire, as advocated by the group, for the blood of southerners shed in the north, as well as churches razed so far by the rampaging Muslim Boko-Haram sect for no permissible reason.

Perhaps, that was why before now, an Ijaw group in Delta State, under the auspices of the National Council of Ijaw Activists, NCIA, led by Mallam Yusuf Eregebene as national president and Comrade Ozobo Austin as national secretary, seeing that northern governors were evacuating their citizens from the south, asked the southern governors to also evacuate their citizens.

Sultan of Sokoto and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, CAN President

Shocker

NACIA, NDIMRC and other southern groups of like minds, were, therefore amazed to see that the Federal Government, in spite of the orgy of violence and ultimatum by Boko Haram on southerners to quit the north, directed Nigerians, on Tuesday, to remain where they are.

Curiously too, there has not been any orchestrated plan by the south to retaliate despite the provocation.

Christian leaders, including the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who had pontificated on the matter, simply sulked and urged Christians in the north to defend themselves.

Indeed, days before the Federal Government came up with the directive Tuesday, January 10, one of the state governments in the south, Delta state, had taken a position that Muslims should not leave the state in spite of the butchering of southerners in the north.

Sapele explosions

The decision is paradoxical to those who thought that the explosions at the Sapele Main Mosque, Sapele in Sapele Local Government Area of Delta, Children Islamic School, Sapele , December, last year and attacks on Muslims in Sapele were indications that the South had woken up to the reality of the times.

But, unknown to them, despite the sporadic escapades of kidnappers and bandits, Sapele, the headquarters of Sapele Local Government Area in Delta State, popularly known as the timber city, being the hub of the timber industry in the country, is not prepared, like a leopard, to change its spot.

Though, lately, as if in a conspiratorial alliance, a string of events obliquely connected to the activities of the Islamic Boko Haram sect have combined to scare daylight out of the residents.

In fact, at the time of this report, Muslims, who used to live in peace in Sapele, were fleeing the timber city in their numbers, as all of a sudden, they discovered that that they had become an endangered specimen.

Troubleshooting moves

But the state government had insisted that Muslims should remain in Sapele and weeks ago, the governor deployed the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mamman Tsafe and one of his Muslim special assistants to drum the message to their fellow Muslims. Tsafe was understood to have visited Muslims at the motor parks and other gatherings to dissuade them from fleeing the state, while the special adviser had held series of meetings with Muslims in the state.

In-house crisis

Though, available reports showed that the Muslims themselves were hit by internal crisis, which led to the detonation of explosives at the Central Mosque, Sapele and Islamic Children School, Sapele, December 10, 2011 and December 27, 2011 respectively, the attack, January 6, on Muslims in the town by some hoodlums pointed at a worsening scenario.

Earlier, a militant group had purportedly claimed responsibility for the explosion that rocked the Islamic Children School, Sapele. The group said it was a reprisal attack over the killing of Christians and burning of Churches in the north. But hoodlums took advantage of the insecurity in the land, caused by the Boko Haram sect to loot property in Sapele , saying they were responding to the ultimatum given southerners by the Islamic group to quit the north.

Save for the timely intervention of soldiers and policemen who arrived the scene in two armored tankers, the hoodlums would have set ablaze the two mosques in the area, as they had already gained entry into the mosques with substances suspected to be fuel and kerosene, and boxes of matches, early this month.

All vehicular movements around the area were halted, while shops along Hausa road, Urhobo, Market, Cemetery, Palm Avenue and Yoruba roads were shut down for fear of vandalization, just as the youths paraded the streets with dangerous weapons, including cutlasses, battle axes and knives, while the offensive lasted.

It’s not Boko Haram- Police

President Jonathan

Whichever way, the Delta State police spokesman, Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP, Charles Muka, said the explosions in Sapele had nothing to do with Boko Haram, adding that it was a minor incident orchestrated by some disgruntled persons.

At the last count, however, no fewer than 20 Muslims were reportedly injured in the explosions and attacks and counter attacks by rival groups. The Sapele Mosque was partly destroyed and one person injured in the first attack, while 10 children were injured in the attack on the Islamic Children School.

We need adequate security – Muslims

The head teacher of the school that was attacked with dynamite, Mallam Mohammed Abdul Razaq told Saturday Vanguard that the pupils and the Muslim worshippers in Sapele need adequate security against further attack.

Mallam Razaq who escaped death during the attack said wounded pupils were responding to treatment at the various hospitals where they were admitted.

Father of two of the pupils wounded in the explosion, Alhaji Asad Mohammed also told Saturday Vanguard that hischildren are responding to treatment.

Asked if he was contemplating relocating his children from the school after their recovery, he said it was not the practice of Muslims to fear, adding that Allah would pay every one according to his deed on the planet earth , but less than 10 days later when hoodlums attacked Muslims in the town, citing attacks on Christians in the north and ultimatum by the Boko Haram sect, some Muslims in Sapele decided to leave.

I cannot flee from my state – Musa

Responding to the attack on Muslims in Sapele, the secretary of a Muslim media group, an Itsekiri-born Muslim, Sadiq Oniyesaneyene Musa told Saturday Vanguard that a group attacked Muslims and asked them to leave. Six persons were injured in the attack.

Also in another village called Ekakpamre in Ughelli, two persons were injured, but in Agbara-Otor, there was no attack, but rumour and fear is the situation there. But Sadiq said he was not going anywhere.

His words, “Come to think of it, if you are asking us, Itsekiri, Ijaw and Urhobo, who are Muslims to leave the state or attack us, it may lead to tribal crisis. Where do you want us to go to? Do you want to us to leave for the north, which is not our homeland? My advice to the people is that no religion teaches and encourages violence or killing.

“If I believe in my Qu’ran and my Christian brothers believe in the Bible, they should allow holiness to prevail. The word of Allah will be the order of the day, the problem today will not be there”, he added.

But observers think that the happenings in Sapele, incongruous as it were, should not be used as a barometer to know the temperament of the state, as the people, have not at any time, given Muslims ultimatum to quit the state.

“We didn’t ask Muslims to leave,” Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Mr. Ovuozorie Macaulay insisted in an interview with Saturday Vanguard at Asaba. “No community in the state has asked Muslims to leave. It was Sapele youths that even chased away the hoodlums that attacked some Muslims in the town”.