Why South-East cannot be trusted with power – Northern groups

The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNGs) on Thursday faulted the approach adopted by the Igbo groups and individuals clamouring for Nigeria’s president of South-East extraction next year.

The spokesman for the CNGs, Abdulazeez Suleiman, who addressed journalists at a press conference on Thursday night in Abuja, said the Igbos cannot be trusted with presidential power.

He added that the Igbo elders constituted a serious threat to national security following their recent warning that they would disrupt the peace of the country if the South-East was denied opportunity of producing President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor

He also slammed the Igbo elders for calling for the release of the detained Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

Suleiman said: “The Coalition of Northern Groups has taken stock of events in Nigeria, particularly in the past few months when our democracy, political unity and national security have come under serious scrutiny, noting especially, the unrelenting violent disturbances created around certain interests of the Igbo people.

“This is confirmed by the utterances and actions of such Igbo leaders as the former Governor of Anambra State and Chairman of the Igbo Elders Consultative Forum, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, when he threatened the continued existence of Nigeria during a condolence visit paid to him by Igbo leaders of thought and traditional rulers on April 5, 2022.

READ ALSO: Northern groups call for boycott of Igbo businesses in region

“Similarly, groups of Igbo leaders and elders have engaged in desperate covert and overt efforts to secure the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the IPOB terror group standing trial for crimes against the state.

“As if these were not enough, same group of Igbo elders again recklessly issued a national security threat on May 4, 2022, that any attempt to elude the zone of the presidency in 2023 may rupture the existence of Nigeria as a corporate entity as well as aggravate crisis, conflicts, separatist demands and others.

“The CNG observes that the perpetrators of this senseless violence are relentlessly pursuing the agenda of destruction and collective mayhem, fervently hoping it will engulf the entire country and bring about another civil war and mass killings.

“This has deepened the fears that the Igbo cannot and should never be trusted with presidential power and rendered their renewed desperation for the Igbo presidency suspect.”

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