Ohanaeze, Afenifere condemn Kwankwaso for rejecting alleged planned arrest of northern youths over quit notice, call for his investigation
Presidential hopeful and former governor of Kano, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, is currently being bashed for opposing the call for the arrest of the northern youths who issued a three-month notice to Igbo people living in the region.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state had ordered that the youths be arrested. Up till now, this has not been done.
On Thursday, June 22 in Abuja, Kwankwaso reportedly declared his opposition the call for the arrest of the youths. Instead, he urged that the youths should be engaged in dialogue.
The Punch reports the deputy publicity secretary of Ohanaeze, Mr Chuks Ibegbu, as condemning this statement by Kwankwaso adding: “Nobody is above the law so the security agencies should investigate him.
“We want to warn that those that are fanning the embers of disunity should desist from doing so, because, if at the end of the day, the country descends to anarchy, they will also lose out.”
“We have not forgotten that when he was governor, he stated that there was no need for more states to be created in the south-east.
“He said the land mass of the South-East would not support a new state, but he chose to forget the fact that state creation is not just about land mass but population.”
On his part, the spokesperson for Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, said Kwankwaso has not changed from what he has been known for, which he described as bigotry.
Noting that Kwankwaso was trying to position himself as a defender of the Arewa, Odumakin said: “He (Kwankwaso) is trying to position himself as a defender of the Arewa and anyone who knows him over the years would have observed his bigotry and it shows clearly that he doesn’t believe in Nigeria.
“When a crisis happened in Ife, it was Kwankwaso that was making incendiary remarks and yet there are rumours that he wants to be president of Nigeria. We have noted his utterances.”
“When people like him talk about one Nigeria, it is pure deception. I endorse what the Southern Nigeria Youths Coalition said that they wanted a referendum to determine the future of the country.
“I support their plan to retaliate any genocide against the Igbo in the north.”
Reacting to Kwankwaso’s position too, former governor of old Kaduna state, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, insisted that the northern youths drumming the quit notice should be arrested. NAIJ.COM