President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF),
Alhaji Shettima Yerima, has said that Kaduna State
governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai was playing with fire by planning to
arrest members of his group, who had issued quit notice to Igbo living
in the north to leave the region on or before October 1...
The quit notice was a fallout of stay at home observed in
the Southeast on May 30, following the order of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader
of proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). The Arewa youths had
since suspended their quit notice order following interventions by
political leaders across the country.
Governor El-Rufai had on Thursday obtained court warrant to arrest the Northern youth leaders.
Reacting to this development, Yerima told Saturday Sun, that the governor’s action shows that he is an enemy of the Muhammadu Buhari government.
He said his AYCF doesn’t want to join issues with the governor because what was before them is to see how to build the country.
“Honestly, we really do not want to join issues with him,
what is before us is how to rebuild the country, and so far, we have
been doing that. Probably the governor is working to distract the
government and we cannot be an agent to distracting the government.
“We will ensure we do everything within our limits to
ensure that there is peace in the country, and we have been
demonstrating this. We will not allow him to distract us”.
Yerima said they have not been summoned, and they would
appear if summoned, as they were not above the law. On whether the
Northern elders who supported them would still stand by them, the AYCF
leader said, when his group issued the quit notice, they didn’t consult
the elders, and so cannot preempt what the elders are thinking in this
direction.
He vowed that they would not go into hiding because of
threats from El-Rufai, saying that, “we are not cowards. We are not
hiding, and will never hide”
He noted that Nigerians would be in a better position to
judge the Kaduna State governor, and to see if he is a true Nigerian,
who actually wants peace in the country.
“We are wondering because El-Rufai never thought of this
until few days before October 1, when the issue has been put behind us,
and we have done wonderfully to nip in the bud any crisis that would
arise in the north because of killings in the Southeast. We took it upon
ourselves to go to Kano, a volatile area to address the northern
youths, and warned that nobody should attack any Igbo in the region;
more so, there shouldn’t be any reprisal attack. No one from Southeast
was harassed in the north. For him to come now is a clear indication for
Nigerians to know the true enemy of the government, as well as, true
enemy of the country.”
Responding to the statement by the Attorney General of the
Federation, Abubakar Malami that members of the AYCF could not be
arrested over security reasons, Yerima said what El-rufai is trying to
do portends danger.
“He is doing it to incite people against the government
and he is playing with fire. That is exactly what he is demonstrating
because there is peace in the land, and we are working to ensure that
there is unity. About two weeks ago, we have conference of all the
ethnic nationalities, where we resolved to work together in order to
build a stable country as a
panacea to having peace and progress, and to support the good policies
of the government, and suddenly, El-rufai is coming up with this issue,
after all the efforts we have been making to ensure peace.
Nigerians should now know who is the true enemy of the country and the people.
You keep asking yourself what does this man want? Is this man normal or under any influence? He is playing with fire,” Yerima stated.
…Arrest warrant may undermine peace efforts –ACF
From NOAH EBIJE, Kaduna
Secretary General, Arewa
Consultative Forum, Mr. Anthony Sani has said that the bench warrant
obtained by the Kaduna State government to arrest Arewa youths leader
who gave the October 1 deadline to Igbo to leave Northern Nigeria was
not necessary.
Sani told Saturday Sun that the
warrant was capable of undermining efforts by Northern governors who
made the Arewa youths rescind the threat long before the October
deadline.
According to him, “I agree with those who
are saying that the warrant of arrest is no more necessary, since the
Coalition of Arewa Youths had withdrawn the quit notice. Morever, the
warrant at this time is capable of undermining the efforts by the
Northern states Governors Forum led by Governor Shettima and the Peace
Committee led by former Head of state General Abubakar Abdulsalami who
persuaded the Coalition of Arewa Youths to withdraw the quit notice”
Meanwhile, the Kaduna State Governor,
Nasir El-rufai has kept mum over comments on him by former Lagos State
Police Commissioner, Abubakar Tsav.
From Thursday night through Friday
morning, text messages and phone calls were made to El-rufai’s
spokesman, Samuel Aruwan without any response, even at the time of
filing this report on Friday night.
Faced with this dilemma amid efforts to
beat deadline, our correspondent sought alternative reaction from the
acting Secretary of the State All Progressives Congress (APC), Yahaya
Baba Pate.
However, Pate declined comment, saying,
“I don’t want to comment and take over somebody else’s job. My own is to
talk about our political party in the state. You may wish to contact
El-rufai’s media spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, I believe you have access to
him”.
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