FEARING that the current killings of Southern Christians by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, in northern states could lead to reprisal attacks in the Southern states, hundreds of Northerners, especially Muslims living in Enugu and other parts of the South East left for their home states, weekend.
The mass exodus by the Northerners came even as the apex Igbo socio-cultural rganisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, directed all Igbo to remain wherever they were to collectively defend their lives and property while awaiting the federal and state governments, as well as other bodies concerned, to put an end to what it described as “this calamitous phenomenon”.
Apparently responding to the ultimatum given by an Igbo revolutionary and counter-terrorism group, Ogbunigwe Ndigbo, that all Northern Muslims in the South East should quit within two weeks as their safety would not be guaranteed after the period, Hausa and Fulani Muslims residing in the South East with members of their families, began to return to their home states since last Friday.
Sources told Vanguard that several trucks and trailers had been conveying the Northerners from their settlements in New Artisan market and Ugwuoba in Enugu State, as well as Lokpanta in Abia State to the North since last Friday, following fears that Ndigbo could retaliate killing of their people in the North.