BY: RALPH EJIMKONYE
The Igbo National Council, INC, has called on the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, to call to order, leader of the Arewa Youth Forum, ACF, Yerima Shettima on recent inciting video and press statement credited to him, wherein he said 2023 “is not right time for Igbo person to be President of Nigeria.
A statement signed by Chilos Godsent, President, INC, recalled it was “the same Yerima has in recent time be misinforming ignorant Nigerians that the North has made more sacrifices more than any other tribe in building Nigeria.
The statement reads:
“The attention of the Igbo National Council (INC) has been drawn to a recent inciting video and press statement as published by the Punch online credited to Yerima Shettima stating that 2023 is not Right time for Igbo person to be President of Nigeria.
“Yerima Shettima is the purported leader of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum that some years ago issued quit order to the Igbo people living in the Northern States of Nigeria.
“The same Yerima has in recent time be misinforming ignorant Nigerians that the North has made more sacrifices more than any other tribe in building Nigeria.
“We wish to use this opportunity to set the record straight and properly educate Yerima Shettima and his co-travellers on the wrong part of history, that since the creation of Nigeria no tribe, race or group has made more sacrifices in building Nigeria than the Igbo Race. The Igbo Race has invested unquantifiable human and material resources to keep Nigeria alive since its creation even to an extend we lost millions of lives during the genocide of 1966, and till date our mineral resources are been plundered and used to fund the North.
“Consequently, in the spirit of reconciliation, fairness, justice and equity, the only geopolitical zone more ripe to produce the President of Nigeria is 2023 is the South-East zone.
“We urge Nigerians to ignore the false and misleading video and publications of Yerima Shettima regarding the 2023 Nigeria Presidential elections.
“Finally, we therefore call on the leadership of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and other Northern political leaders to immediately call Yerima Shettima and his co-travellers to order before they throw the country into destructive political crisis ahead 2023 Nigeria Presidential election.