TheCable

The Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) has urged Niger Delta leaders to call militants in the region to order over the quit notice issued to the Yoruba in the area.

The militants under the aegis of Niger Delta Agitators (NDA) had asked the Yoruba and the Hausa resident in the region to vacate on or before October 1.

In a statement issued on Friday by Gani Adams, OPC national coordinator, the group said a similar threat was recently issued to the Yoruba in the region, calling on the Niger Delta leaders to caution the militants.

The pan-Yoruba group also warned that the quit notice could affect the “robust relationship” enjoyed by the south-west and south-south.

“We know that the position of the militants may not reflect that of their leaders. There is a need for them to speak out against the move of the group,” the statement read.

OPC warned the militants to realise that “there are more indigenes of their region in the south-west than the south-westerners in their region”, and demanded that “Yorubas must be safe in Niger Delta”.

Adams said: “We see the Southerners as friends but we are not in any way comfortable with the threat to quit.

“The clamp down may have an ill effect of further threat against our people in the Niger Delta region.”