The Federal Government says the security agencies are on red alert over the threat by a coalition of northern youth groups asking Igbos to vacate the region within three months.

The government said such a threat is capable of destabilising the country.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, stated this on Wednesday while fielding questions from State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

The minister assured that security agencies were very much on top of the issue.

He, however, noted that such a threat and the responses by another group had always existed in the past.

He said: “The issue of one group issuing a statement that is capable of destabilising the country and being responded to by another group in another part of the country did not start today and did not start yesterday.

“What l want to assure you is that the security organisations are very much on top of this matter.”

The northern groups, including the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, had Tuesday given all the Igbo resident in the 19 northern states a three-month ultimatum to quit or be forced out after the expiration of the October 1, 2017 deadline.

The groups had equally asked northerners resident in the south-east to be prepared to return home.

Their grievances had been over the success of a recent sit-at-home order enforced by the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra which the five south-eastern states complied with.