If there is anything that worries Victor Ogbodo, an Awka based butcher, it is the exodus of Hausa people from the south on the orders of the outlawed Islamic group, Boko Haram. Ogbodo, a native of Nsukka in Enugu State, expressed worry that the exodus of northern cattle dealers might degenerate into loss of business and its attendant starvation of his family members.
Since the ultimatum by members of Boko Haram sect for non-southern Christians living in the north to leave the region or face attacks, there has been mass movement of northern Moslems from the south for fear of reprisal attack. Ogbodo said he drove past over six trailers loaded with departing members of the Hausa/Fulani community when he was returning to Awka after the yuletide. “When I got to Ugwuoba cattle market, where we usually buy goats, I could hardly see any member of the Hausa community. And you know that this people are those that bring cattle to us from the north. So, what that means is that the increase in the price of meat is imminent,” he foretold. Mrs. Ideh, who also runs a beer palour in Awka, confirmed that there is increase in the price of meat and subsequent increase in the price of pepper-soup.
Mrs. Obianuju Ebenighe, who lives around Dike Park in Awka, told this magazine that she was surprised to see a once bubbling Hausa community deserted early that morning. According to Mrs Ebenighe, even those who traded in sundry goods along Zik’s Avenue, a major road leading to the market were nowhere at sight. Around the mosque however, few members of the community were seen huddled together as if they were frightened.
Joseph Onwurah who has over 20 northerners living in his house said all the tenants have left. Onwurah, who said he once lived in Jos, Plateau State before coming home to settle, said the phenomenon of such movements have been an age-long problem. “They don’t want to see the progress of any Igbo man in their area despite the fact that the Igbo always give boost to their economy. They hate the Igbo with passion, the reason I don’t know. But when they live outside their home, they are normal and loving. And soon as they return home, the influence comes back … anybody who does not belong to their religion is a perceived enemy.
“For those who live in my house, they just told me that they were going home and I bade them goodbye and asked them to extend my felicitation to their kiths and kins. I am sure they did not leave in anger nor did they have any quarrel with anybody,” Onwurah said.
When this reporter visited a mosque in Awka for an interview, he was referred to the Imam, who was said to be unavoidably absent.
The atmosphere in the east was charged following the number of slain people of Igbo extraction in the northern part of the country. In Mubi, Adamawa State, about 10 Igbo people who gathered at a town hall meeting to plan how to raise money to convey the corpse of a man, said to have been shot dead, were targeted and brutally murdered. Also the majority of people who died on the Christmas day bombing at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church Madala in Niger State, were from the eastern part of the country. Mrs. Ideh said the northerners living among the Igbo only developed cold-feet after seeing the colossal evil their kinsmen at home have committed. “We are not pursuing them. Instead, they are pursuing us. If we are pursuing them, where they built their mosque in Awka is in the center of the town, and nothing has happened to the mosque or any of them. If we are aggressive as their people are, our youths would have burnt down or destroyed the mosque or even killed them. But so far nothing of such has happened.
“They are merely frightened because of their mindset. We, the Igbo are accommodating. We don’t have the mind to hurt our guests. If we hate them, we can’t even hire them to be our security guards at night,” she said in an interview. 
In Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State, at least 75 percent of northerners living in the town have flee the town following renewed attacks by Boko Haram on churches located in the northeastern part of the country. Cities like Port Harcourt and Owerri also witnessed mass exodus of northerners. The chief Imam of Aba Central Mosque, Alhaji Idris Bashir told this magazine that after the incidence at Sapele, where an Islamic school was allegedly attacked, panic erupted and some of the northerners had to go. But he said they have not received any threat from anybody and the security agents have assured them of adequate protection. Governor Theodore Orji has also assured the Hausa community and other tribes living in the state of their safety. In a statement by his chief press secretary, Ugochukwu Emezue, the governor said security agencies have been put on red alert to maintain law and order in the state.
Former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife also berated those who may have called for reprisal action against northern indigenes living in the southeast. “Some not-well informed persons have suggested that we avenge the targeting and killing of Igbos in parts of the north on northern Muslims living in our soil. “But our tradition and our religion forbid the killing of innocent people who live on our land. Anybody calling for vengeance on Igbo soil is not well brought up and is not working in Igbo interest. Such threats and calls must be ignored. For now, Nigeria belongs to all of us and those able to raise the new transport fare should return to their northern and other base,” Ezeife insisted.
Former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu however warned of reprisal attack if the killing of Igbo people in the north continues. In a statement credited to him, Kalu said “it is unacceptable that whenever there is any disagreement or crisis of any sort in this country, the Igbo are targeted whether the issue at stake concerns them or not,” adding: “we shall no longer turn the other cheek but shall demand an eye for an eye.”
Kalu, who described as unacceptable the wanton killings of Christians and southerners, mostly of Igbo extraction in the northern part of Nigeria, warned of a possible retaliation. “Whether the recent bombings and slaughters in churches are attributable to the hatred of western education or making the country ungovernable for the President or even the alleged quest for revenge by the Boko Haram sect, or the alleged extra-judicial killing of its leader, none of these issues has anything to do with the Igbo.” He wondered why despite the price paid by the southeast for the unity of Nigeria, they are being targeted at the slightest opportunity. “The Igbo as a group have paid dearly for the unity of this country, and despite the pogrom that preceded the civil war, and the genocide against them during the civil war, they have continued to believe in and practically work for the unity of this country, settling and developing the economies of all parts of this country, despite the continued marginalisation and balkanisation of their region. Everywhere you go, you see the Igbo. We are the salt of the nation.”
The people of the region are divided over the ultimatum given to southerners living in the north to leave. A group, which called itself Hilltop 82 urged the Igbo living in the northern part of the country to shun the ultimatum given by Boko Haram sect, as no group, under any guise has the capacity to order law abiding citizens to vacate any part of the country. The group warned that no group of individual has monopoly of violence. Violence does not pay, and crisis does not encourage development of a place,” the group stated.
Comrade Azubuike Asuzu, chairman, Road Transport Employees Association of Nigeria, RTEAN, however advised Igbo people leaving in the north to leave the place. 
Easylife Initiative for Rural Youths expressed fear that the activities of the group have the potentials of generating another civil war in the country. “The event that led to the war started like a mild drama. Diverse interpretations were given to it; some thought it was some military skirmishes, some scholars attributed it to religious imbroglio, while yet other schools of thought said it was an ethnic squabble.” Moses Ogbonna, president of the group called on the federal government to bring to book, sponsors of the Boko Haram sect.
The International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety, a nongovernmental organisation, NGO, called on the government to improve security of lives and property in the country. In a statement issued by its chairman, board of trustees, BoT, Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi, Intersociety, wondered why the country’s labour leaders should be more concerned about “anti-fuel subsidy crusade,” rather than combating government frontally against the continued rapacious massacre of tens of innocent Nigerians on daily basis.”
The Hausa-Muslim community in Awka, Anambra State, enjoined southerners to ignore the threat as the country belongs to all Nigerians. A statement by the secretary of south-south/southeast Northern Traditional Council, Alhaji IIiyasu Yushau, the community noted that large number of northerners both Christians and Muslims are also residing in the south and go about their businesses without molestation from any quarter. 
Alhaji Musa Ihekaram, a southern Moslem condemned the activities of the Boko Haram sect as unIslamic. According to Alhaji Ihekaram, the actions of the group are to provoke the Christians. “I have not read where the Koran said that you must kill a Christian before you go to heaven. The closest allies of the Moslems are Christians. I challenge my northern Muslim brothers to show where the Koran said that you must kill.  “We the Moslems in the southeast are in support of the President to fish out the sponsors of Boko Haram. Our Christian brothers ought not to be provoked by the activities of Boko Haram,” he declared.

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