KADUNA – The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has appealed to the judiciary to conclude cases relating to President Goodluck Jonathan eligibility to contest in the 2015 general election by Dec. 18.
This is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of its Rapid Response Committee meeting in Kaduna on Wednesday.
The communiqué, signed by ACF Secretary General, retired Col. John Ubah, stated that this was necessary to save the nation’s democracy from avoidable problems.
It stated that Dec. 18 deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for political parties to submit names of candidates for the general election.
The ACF also resolved that elections “must hold under all circumstances and in every part of the country’’.
It decried the recent fracas at the House of Representatives, describing it as a “crude process of subverting the sanctity and independence of the legislature’’.
The ACF alleged that the incidence was a conspiracy to scuttle democracy, and urged the Federal Government to “allow the police and other agencies of state to operate within the parameters of the constitution’’.
The group opposed the request for extension of state of emergency in three states of the North-East, saying previous imposition had only worsened security situation in the zone.
The ACF commiserated with victims of Tuesday’s suicide attack in Maiduguri, claiming that the incident exposed the Federal Government’s lack of capacity and willingness to prosecute the war on insurgency.
It warned that “Nigerians are being pushed to the wall to defend themselves in desperation’’. (NAN)