President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Shettima Yerima has reacted to arrest warrant obtained against his members by Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai.
He said the governor was playing with fire by planning to arrest members of his group, who had issued quit notice to Igbos living in the north to leave the region on or before October 1.
Governor El-Rufai had on Thursday obtained court warrant to arrest the Northern youth leaders.
Reacting to this development, Yerima told Saturday Sun, that the governor’s action showed that he was an enemy of the Muhammadu Buhari government.
“Honestly, we really do not want to join issues with him, what is before us is how to rebuild the country, and so far, we have been doing that.
“Probably the governor is working to distract the government and we cannot be an agent to distracting the government.
“We will ensure we do everything within our limits to ensure that there is peace in the country, and we have been demonstrating this. We will not allow him to distract us”, he said.
He noted that Nigerians would be in a better position to judge the Kaduna State governor, and to see if he was a true Nigerian, who actually wanted peace in the country.
“We are wondering because El-Rufai never thought of this until few days before October 1, when the issue has been put behind us, and we have done wonderfully to nip in the bud any crisis that would arise in the north because of killings in the Southeast.
“We took it upon ourselves to go to Kano, a volatile area to address the northern youths, and warned that nobody should attack any Igbo in the region; more so, there shouldn’t be any reprisal attack.
“No one from Southeast was harassed in the north. For him to come now is a clear indication for Nigerians to know the true enemy of the government, as well as, true enemy of the country.”
