Non-arrest of Arewa youths strategic, to avoid making them popular as Nnamdi – VON DG

ENUGU- THE Director General Voice of Nigeria,
VON, Mr. Osita Okechukwu has said that the
non-arrest of Arewa Youths threatening Igbo
residents in northern Nigeria was strategic, to
avoid making them as popular as Nnamdi
through his long incarceration.
Okechukwu said arrest of Yerima Shetimma and
his cohorts would make them celebrities which
may spur another round of agitation in the
country.
Okechukwu spoke against the background of
Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s frown on the complexity of
the security apparatus to the danger posed by
the Arewa Youths’ hate speech against Ndigbo.
Okechukwu in a statement in Enugu on Sunday
disagreed with the position of Ohanaeze Ndigbo
that the security agencies were playing double
standards by not making arrests over the quit
notice on Ndigbo residing in northern Nigeria.
Okechukwu said it was the long detention of the
leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB,
Nnamadi Kanu that brought about his recent
fame and rejected any other arrest that could
make the inconsequential Arewa youths famous.
He said:”Methinks the non-arrest of Yerima
Shetima and cohorts of the Arewa Youths for
their arrant, unpatriotic, unconstitutional and
provocative quit notice is strategic.
“Strategic in the sense that more than any other
factor was the arrest and long detention of
harmless, but as well provocative Nnamdi Kanu
of IPOB which led to this sordid scenario.
“Detention made Kanu with no fixed address
became an instant celebrity. Had Kanu not been
arrested his agitation could have fizzled out
unnoticed.
“I didn’t consult the Inspector General of the
Police or any security officer for that matter, but
common sense. The security chiefs might have
reasoned that it is better to allow the storm to
boil over, instead of creating another celebrity.
As time is the healer of all wounds.”