ACF distances self from communique criticising northern leaders

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has disowned a statement criticising northern leaders.

Last week, key northern groups met in Kaduna and asked northerners to examine “all options” in the political choices they will make in 2019.

They said most of the political office holders from the north “are hereby served notice that they have failed the test to lead the region towards economic recovery and growth”.

Ibrahim Mai Sule signed the communique on behalf of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and Northern Elders Forum (NEF).

But in a statement on Thursday, Muhammad Ibrahim, spokesman of the ACF, said the person who signed did so on his own.

Ibrahim said the forum “will address the north and the nation on this and similar issues as it always does at the appropriate time”.

The statement read: “The attention ACF has been drawn to the Communique of the Northern Groups Summit held at the Arewa House, Kaduna, on Saturday, March 24, 2018 where the ACF was said to be a signatory to the communique.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the ACF would want to state clearly that it was never involved in the preparation nor participated in the said summit of that group and did not mandate any of its members to represent it.

“ACF acknowledges the right of the individuals or groups to freedom of association as enshrined in our constitution. Any member who claimed to have represented ACF or signed on behalf of the forum did so on his own.

“Furthermore, the views expressed in the said communique were that of the conveners and not that of ACF which is an umbrella body for all northerners irrespective of their political, ethnic and religious persuasions. ACF therefore dissociates itself from the communique in its entirety.”