Banditry: Northern youths blast Datti Muhammed over comments on NEF, Abdullahi

Samuel Amah, Abakaliki

The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, on Sunday, carpeted Hon Muhammed Datti, over what it described as “disparaging comments” against the Northern Elders Forum and its leader, Prof Ango Abdullahi.

In a statement signed by its National President, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, a copy of which was made available to FamousReporters, on Sunday, the group said it was, “seriously upset with the disrespectful manner in which Muhammed attacked the personality of Prof Ango and the NEF”, which according to it, remained the most respected group of prominent Northerners that say the truth.

Hon Datti Muhammed was reported to have said that Ango and other eminent Northerners inside the NEF were in disagreement with President, Major-General Muhammadu (rted), because before(he) Buhari didn’t give them job. The statement was said to have angered prominent elders in the North, including the executives of the AYCF.

AYCF in the statement, said, “Professor Ango’s vehicle was once decorated with bullets for standing with and struggling to have Buhari at the top. He escaped death by the whiskers.

“It is infantile of Hon Datti Muhammed, as a Northerner and lawmaker of the Federal Republic to stoop so low by indulging in cheap campaign of calumny against both the NEF and Professor Ango Abdullahi, a former Vice Chancellor of ABU, a Democrat and close associate of late the MKO Abiola.

“The likes of Hon Datti Muhammed are the ones responsible for the current backwardness of the North by deliberately hiding the truth about our troubles, in the desperation to get into the good books of the executive arm of government.

“By the way, how many motions has he ever raised since his inauguration as a House of Representatives member? How many Bills has he ever initiated as a lawmaker?”

The group then declared that “given the way and manner that Hon Datti is overlooking the dire situation that the North is currently facing, he may not even be a Nigerian in reality, but we are doing our checks and soon we will intimate Nigerians on who he is in actual fact.

The statement futher queried, “By the way, when has Hon Datti Muhammed become the spokesman of the Buhari Presidency? Why is he even trying to veer into an area he has no business with?

“We have not seen such a sychopant and reactionary posturing against those telling truth in the North, to those in power and wonder what has come over him.

“Most importantly, how many times has Hon Datti Muhammed risen on the floor of the lower chamber to make a case for the North? Is his selfish attack on Professor Ango and NEF not an indication that he has no idea what contribution to make in the media for getting the North out of the woods? What was the harm in NEF and Professor Ango openly drawing the attention of those responsible for the North’s safety to the region’s daily bleeding, kidnapping and killings, that have become the order of the day?”