ACF to Buhari, ‘You know the implication of swearing with Koran’

 

BY NICHOLAS ABE

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The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has reminded the president, Muhammadu Buhari, of the implication of swearing with Koran and failing to live up to the oath of his office.

ACF was reacting to the rising spate of insecurity in the north under the watch of President Buhari.

In a no-holds-barred statement it issued on Monday, the pan-northern socio-political and cultural organisation of states in the north of Nigeria, berated the president over what it termed “endless killings” in the north.

The ACF statement signed by its spokesman, Emmanuel Yawe, came on a day gunmen invaded Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, at about 12:50pm and abducted three members of a family. While the wife and a daughter of a worker of the university later escaped following a gun battle between the kidnappers and the police, the university worker was taken away by the bandits.

The Monday attack followed the abduction of students from the Department of French who were travelling to Lagos for a programme at the Nigerian French Language Village (NFLV) in Badagry, when they were abducted along the Abuja-Kaduna two Sundays ago by gunmen.

The nine students were freed last Saturday after ransom was paid by their families to secure their freedom.

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Last week, gunmen invaded Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria and abducted a lecturer and two of his children.

“We feel there is no need to call on President Buhari to live up to his oath of office. He knows more than anybody else the implications of swearing on the Quran and refusing to honour your oath to the Almighty.

“We are only for the umpteenth time conveying the anger and frustrations of many northerners to him so that he will do the needful and speedily too. It is getting too late,” the ACF fumed.

It continued: “In October 2020, the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, under the leadership of Chief Audu Ogbe, held its first National Working Committee and National Executive Committee meetings in two days in Kaduna.

“At both meetings, all states and local government representatives expressed concern over the levels of insecurity in the local areas they represent all over the North at the ACF.

“The Communique the forum issued at the end of the October meeting where we strongly and pointedly called on President Buhari to give attention to the growing insecurity in the north and the whole of Nigeria reflects the desperate and exact feelings of the whole North.

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“Sadly, since our meeting in October in Kaduna, the security situation is getting worse. There have been serial killings of more people in the North by the bandits whom the Minister of police claimed falsely have been defeated.

“Even as the Minister was claiming falsely, whether in ignorance or deliberate, victory over bandits, 12 Police superintendents on official duty from Zamfara to Kano were overpowered by superior tactics and force while driving in a convoy and abducted with a heavy ransom demand on each policeman’s family.

“Apart from that the bandits mounted four road blocks on Kaduna- Abuja road which the police have claimed severally that they have liberated from bandits.

“News reports by the media speak of many dead and several others taken away by bandits for ransom. Nine students of French at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria on educational tour were taken away and a whopping ransom of N270m placed on their heads. Three escaped with gunshot wounds.”