The Arewa Consultative Forum’s veteran members have cautioned its new chairman, Gabriel Aduku, against involving the ACF in his personal political conflict in Kogi State or he will lose his position.
The goal of the ACF, according to its members who represent the several Arewa states, is to foster the growth, unity, peace, and prosperity of the Arewa North as a whole while maintaining positive relations with other parts of the nation.
According to a statement released on Tuesday, June 27 and signed by Asha Manga, governorship candidate for Action Alliance, Alhaji Sadiq Bulama, member, Borno State/ Secretary to the immediate past chairman of ACF, and eight other members, the ACF, was never intended to be a divisive political weapon in the hands of one person or a few to employ in their local political disputes.
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“This Press Release is necessary to quickly inform the general public that the recent position taken by the new chairman of ACF, Architect Gabriel Aduku, on the politics of his home state of Kogi should not be considered as the position of the ACF as an organization but a personal expression of his political sentiments,” the statement read.
The ACF stakeholders noted that despite Aduku’s short tenure in office, any leader of the organization, particularly its chairman, was expected to be a father to all, regardless of political affiliations, and not a supporter of polarizing politics that might jeopardize the peace and unity of any Arewa region.
“It is a public knowledge that Architect Aduku who also doubles as Chairman of the Kogi East Elders’ Forum has recently thrown his weight behind one of the governorship candidates in the November governorship election in Kogi State. Therefore, he cannot claim to be a disinterested party in the election. So, for him to now proceed to the ACF headquarters in Kaduna where he made scathing partisan political statements that are extremely divisive with regard to the November election could be mistaken as the collective position of the ACF which is not,” the ACF members said.
They warned the Chairman stressing that the Forum is to unite the North, not divide it and that he should limit hos Kogi politics within his Kogi East Elders’ Forum, don’t bring the forum down into it.
