ACF Chairman

Apex mouth-piece of Northern Nigeria, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has warned that the ongoing controversy in the Eastern part of the country on issuing identity cards to persons of northern extraction in the area could endanger multi-billion naira investments of the Igbo businessmen living in the north.

Recalled that Northerners doing business in the East, and Imo State in particular were allegedly being registered by the State Government by issuing identity cards to them as means of identification as a result of Boko Haram insurgency.

However, ACF expressed the fear that if the North should embark on a similar action by identifying the Igbos in the northern region, it could cause crisis that may lead to undeserved division of Nigerians on ethnic or religious consideration.

Although, the Forum said there was nothing wrong with issuing identity cards, what was wrong was the fact that a segment of a community was the target, stressing that everybody deserved the identity cards if done in good faith to achieve a goal.

Addressing members of the South-South/South-East Arewa Coalition who paid a courtesy call on the Forum yesterday , the Deputy Secretary-General of ACF, Engineer Abubakar Umar said statistics available to the Forum indicated that Igbo investments in Kaduna, Kano, and Jos alone amounted to N45 trillion.

Umar said with such huge investments in just three States of the north, the Easterners have no reason to maltreat northerners doing businesses in the East, stressing that, “If the table turns round, it could be disastrous as these investments may suffer for it, but we are praying for understanding among the entire Nigerians to accept themselves wherever they live to earn legitimate means of livelihood”.

He explained that Yoruba and Igbo people in Jos, capital of Plateau State lost N480 billion and N410 billion investments respectively to the 2011 post election violence, adding that South-South also lost N970 billion in the same crisis.

“We know these statistics; we have these statistics, so we expect the Igbo to treat our kinsmen, our brothers and sisters in the East as kings and queens in view of the fact that they (Igbo) have more investments in the north than in the East.

“Take Abuja, the Federal capital territory, for example, Igbo occupy over 73 percent of the land, so these are some of the reasons they should be everybody’s keeper in their place”. Umar said.

Earlier, the leader of the Coalition, Mallam Awwal Yusuf told members of the ACF that northerners were doing business under fear in the East, and called on the ACF to intervene because according to him, “every trader or Muslims from the north is considered Boko Haram”.

Yusuf said the Arewa Coalition has taken to court the issue of identity card in order to seek justice and be free from undue molestation in the hands of the people in the area.

“We are so embarrassed with this issue of identity cards, why should it be only traders or Muslims from the north that should be identified. We have taken the case to a court in Enugu, and we are sure that Governor, Sulivan Chime is ready to help us by sending his lawyer to stand for us”. Yusuf said.

Meanwhile, in his closing remarks, the ACF Secretary-General, Col. John Ubah (retd) reminded the visiting northerners from the East that ACF was established to protect the whole north and its people, saying that whatever happened to any northerner anywhere was always considered a serious issue.

Col. Ubah said, “It is very sad to brand our people as Boko Haram in the East, but we want to tell you that we have not been sleeping over your plight; we will go through the northern governors to address the issue”.


Source: Sun