Abia: Buhari should step in to avoid bloodshed – Yerima, Arewa leader

PRESIDENT of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Yerima Shettima, on Sunday strongly condemned attempts to sack Abia State governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazua, without due process of law, describing the move as “attempted civilian coup,” while urging President Mohammadu Buhari to take necessary measures to ensure that the state did not implode with avoidable violence and bloodshed.

Shettima made this known in a statement titled, “The unacceptable civilian coup in Abia and why Buhari must act fast,” copy of which was made available to the Tribune Online in Lagos.

According to the AYCF leader, what is happening in Abia today is a travesty of justice, a smear on decorum and an attempt to rubbish the democratic ethics and principles as well as the rule of law that Nigerians have worked for, adding, “We condemn without reservation the attempted civilian coup in Abia State.”

Yerima further described what was being witnessed currently in Abia as unprecedented and purely the civilian version of a military coup with elements working at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security services and the judiciary involved in a plot to remove a democratically elected governor without allowing due legal process.

‪”We call on President Buhari to take necessary measures to ensure that Abia State does not implode with avoidable violence and bloodshed and ensure that the rule of law is followed.

‪”We call on President Buhari to arrest everyone involved in this attempted coup and bring them to justice,” he said.

Yerima, while insisting that the judicial process must be allowed to be completed without further interference from any quarters, equally called on INEC Chairman to immediately withdraw the certificate of return wrongly and hastily given to Samson Ogah, saying Ogah was merely seeking to reap where he did not sow.

‪”We have reviewed the political situation in Abia State and come to the conclusion that all available indices point to the fact that there is a need to allow the judicial process run its course up to the Supreme Court before any decision can be taken on the rightful governor of Abia State,” Yerima said.

‪He, therefore, called on the people of Abia to resist any attempt to use them to foment trouble in the state and reminded them that no development took place in a state of anarchy.