By Nicholas Dekera, Kaduna
Northern Group under the auspices of Northern Nigeria Youths Leaders Discussion Forum on Thursday lambasted the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation Mr. Abubakar Malami for fueling crisis in Kebbi State tasking security agencies to call him to order.
Speaking during a Press conference at Arewa House on Thursday, ADC’s Director Media and Public Affairs Muhammad Isah Imam said that “most recent are the happenings in Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi and Kogi. In all these K-States, the opposition coalition ADC featured prominently with accusations and counter accusations. But Kebbi stands out, especially with a key figure in the person of Abubakar Malami former Attorney General and Minister of Justice at the centre of it.
He was material to the 2014 APC coalition, and also now in the ADC coalition. But this was not the way it was done in 2014. The violence thus far exhibited and the threatening languages call for concern. ”
“We are therefore calling on the security and intelligence community to reassert their duty in Kebbi State like in Kaduna by calling especially Abubakar Malami to order. A state like Kebbi or any other state in the North, nay Nigeria can ill afford any political violence that would worsen already bad security situations with serious consequences for the country and beyond.
‘Contrary to Malami’s claim, the video of his arrival at the airport, his language and the manner of the youth brandishing weapons that received and escorted him into the town, leading to a violent clash did not show a man on a condolence visit as he claimed.
‘Ordinarily, as a former number one law officer of the Federation, Malami should have sought Police protection considering the crowd of youth that he mobilised to relieve him. But he rather relied on the weapon brandishing youth.
‘Political actors like Malami need to be a focus of the security and intelligence community to avert anything untoward.
‘Much as we are not ignorant of any individual or group’s right to freedom of expression and association in line with democratic norms, it must not be at the cost of peace and stability of a state like Kebbi, our region or the country.” It added
The group maintained that the escalation of political violence in Northern Nigeria as seen with actors like Malami, is a threat to democratic stability, with potential consequences for the nation’s fragile democracy.
