A pan-North socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum, has lashed out at a former acting National Chairman, All Progressives Congress, Chief Bisi Akande, over an alleged anti-North statement.
Akande had, in a letter made public on Monday, alleged among other things, that some members of the northern elite, who included oil subsidy barons and business cartels, were behind the crisis engulfing the ruling party at the national level.
The APC had been embroiled in a crisis over the emergence of Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, against the wish of the party.
The party had picked Senator Ahmed Lawan and Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, as senate president and speaker respectively.
Specifically, Akande said, “Most northern elite, the Nigerian oil subsidy barons and other business cartels, who never liked (President Muhammadu) Buhari’s anti-corruption political stance, are quickly backing up the rebellion against the APC with strong support.”
But the ACF described the statement by Akande as disappointing and uncharitable, adding that it was shocked that the former governor of Osun State could make such a statement.
A statement by the ACF’s National Publicity Secretary, Muhammad Ibrahim, maintained that it was wrong of Akande to link the crisis in the National Assembly to the North.
The statement said, “It is sad that an elder statesman in the person of Chief Bisi Akande, who worked so tirelessly with other Nigerians to form the APC which subsequently won the 2015 general election at the federal level, to say that the crisis in the National Assembly is a conspiracy of the North against the Yoruba.
“The crisis in the National Assembly should be addressed through the party’s internal mechanism of conflict resolution and not through unguarded statements.”
In his reaction, Akande insisted that some northern elements were working against the success of the Buhari administration.
Reacting, Akande’s media aide, Mr. Adelani Baderinwa, on Thursday, said Nigerians know the former governor as honest man who is not given to frivolities.
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