The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has described Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah’s Christmas statement as unguarded and open incitement to military
The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has described Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah’s Christmas statement as unguarded and open incitement to military coup and insurrection against the democratically elected government.
The group on Monday demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of the clergy for what it described as treasonable felony against the Nigerian state.
Kukah, in his 2020 Christmas message titled, ‘A nation in search of vindication’, on Friday, had lamented that nepotism characterised by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He explained that there could have been a coup or war in the country if a non-Northern Muslim becomes a president and does a fraction of what Buhari did.
In a statement signed by its National President, Alhaji Yerima Shettima on Monday in Abuja, the group condemned “Kukah’s use of nepotism as weapon of calumny against government and people of Nigeria.”
AYCF also called on Federal Government to place the Bishop on special watch list for his open attempt to “set the South against the North in order to destabilize our country and further complicate matters.”
Shettima took exception to what his group described as “Kukah’s latest role in devil’s advocacy, as the North struggles to restore peace and enduring security in the region and indeed Nigeria.
“Such a reckless statement by Mathew Kukah betrays something much more sinister against both the North and the nation as a whole because Nigeria is at a stage that it requires responsible advice for attaining peace and stability, not deliberate attempt to mischievously compound our problems.
“If Kukah wants to play politics, he should not do so in the pulpit and he should keep the Bishop’s office aside and chose any Nigerian political party platform to contest for President in 2023 and stop all the pretences,” the statement said.
The group then reminded the cleric of the rough road tread by democracy heroes to rid the nation of military dictatorship at a time when he was nowhere in sight.
“We will not allow opportunists who did make any contribution to scuttle the democracy achieved through our sweat and toil and the sacrifice of our liberty,” Shettima concluded.
