The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has rejected the withdrawal of the quit notice issued to Igbo in the Northern part of the country.

A coalition of Northern youth had initially ordered Igbos residing in the north to leave before October 1, 2017.

They however withdrew the quit notice in a press conference in Abuja on Thursday.

Abdulaziz Suleiman, who spoke on behalf of the youth said they would continue to pursue “petitions to the United Nations and the Nigerian federal authorities calling for appropriate sanction of Nnamdi Kanu, other IPOB leaders and their sponsors in addition to labelling them a terror outfit”.

IPOB has ever described the withdrawal of the quit notice as ‘inconsequential’.

Speaking through its Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, IPOB asked the Arewa youths to ‘stick to the quit notice’, if they have any ‘honour’.

“It is inconsequential to IPOB whether the ‘quit notice’ was rescinded or not because it will in no way impact the pace and direction of our effort to restore Biafra.

“Threats don’t have any effect on us, so our advice to the Arewa North is to please stick to the October 1 deadline or else they have no honour.

“We urge all southerners in the core North to return home before October 1 as history will most definitely repeat itself.

“Southerners were massacred in the pogroms of 1966 and 1967 after similar assurances were issued then that people should remain in the North,” the IPOB spokesman said.

The group added that the quit notice was backed by Northern leaders.

“The presence of a serving governor and senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during the supposed press briefing confirms what we have always known that the incitement to genocide, which is what the ‘quit notice’ is all about, has the blessing of the Arewa political class,” Powerful said.

IPOB also urged the Federal Government to arrest leaders of the Northern group.

“If President Muhammadu Buhari is at all serious about clamping down on hate speech, he should arrest those behind the ‘quit notice’ along with their sponsors,” IPOB said.

“Trying to drag the name of our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, into their unintelligent blood fest will be resisted.

“If the idea is to cow our leader with calls for his arrest, then those behind the genocidal edict of ‘Igbos must leave the North’ are even dumber than we thought.

“Nigeria is crumbling today before our eyes due to the arrest of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu; those wishing for him to be arrested again are basically signing the death warrant of Nigeria,” the secessionist group added.