The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum insists it is a democratic group, but won’t support any combative means in addressing police brutality or any national problem.
Although there were media reports on weekend that the forum threatened the north will go to war if the on-going ENDSARS protest brings down President Muhammadu Buhari government, the group leader has denied it.
The leader however stands by his conviction, saying he remains “unapologetic in the promotion of democracy through legal and legitimate means, in line with the nation’s constitution, which supports presentation of grievances with respect to the rule of law.”
The alleged threat, credited to the group’s national leader Yerima Shettima, followed the weeks-long protest going on in the south—against the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad and its violence while it was in operation.
But clarifying issues, Legal Adviser of AYCF, Abubakar Liman, in a statement, described the media report as a concoction of the publishers’ riotous imagination.
“Our National President has always been a democrat, following legitimate constitutional processes in his agitations and it is for this reason he has built a record of fearless activism but free of violence,” Liman said.
“Much as any other civil society group is free to choose the combative or violent mode of protest, we at the AYCF do not and will never resort to such abhorrent method.
“The AYFC is a platform of matured citizens who strongly believe in deepening Nigeria’s democracy,” AYCF lawyer said.