The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Rev. Fr. Mathew Hassan Kukah, over his comment on the station of the nation.
Kukah had in a Christmas message titled: “A Nation in Search of Vindication,” decried the nepotic nature of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
He said the president had succeeded in sacrificing the dreams of Nigerians by pursuing a Northern hegemony.
Kukah added that there would have been a coup or war in Nigeria if the country was under a non-Muslim president.
Reacting to the cleric’s comments, the AYCF in a statement issued on Monday by its national president, Yerima Shettima, said Kukah’s comments are inciting and a “treasonable felony against the Nigerian State.”
AYCF said such reckless statement by Kukah portrayed a sinister agenda against the North and Nigeria as a whole, stressing that what the country presently required was a responsible advice to attain peace and stability.
The statement read: “That Bishop Kukah is using nepotism as a weapon of calumny against the government and people of Nigeria was an attempt to set the south against the north in order to destabilize our country and further complicate matters.
“Such a reckless statement by 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 choose any Nigerian political party platform to contest for the president in 2023 and stop all the pretences.
“Kukah should be reminded of the struggle to rid the country of military dictatorship.
“We will not allow opportunists who did make any contribution to scuttle the democracy achieved through the sweat and toil and the sacrifice of our liberty.”
