Tension gripped the Arewa Consultative Forum(ACF) on Tuesday as operatives of the Nigeria Police Force descended on the organization’s Kaduna headquarters and sealed the premises, hours before a high-stakes National Executive Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 6.
The forum, one of northern Nigeria’s most influential socio-political organizations, has condemned the action in the strongest possible terms, describing it as not only unjustified but entirely devoid of legal foundation.
In a strongly worded statement issued on Tuesday and signed by the forum’s National Publicity Secretary, Tukur Muhammad-Baba, the ACF said it was blindsided by the police action, revealing that it was unaware of any court order or lawful directive that could serve as the basis for the closure of its offices.
The statement left little doubt about the forum’s fury, declaring that “there is absolutely no basis for sealing the office unless there are unstated motives.”
At the center of the unfolding drama appears to be a power tussle over who holds the authority to convene the forum’s executive meetings. The ACF disclosed that the only document remotely linked to Tuesday’s development was an unsigned circular, allegedly attributed to one Bashir Dalhatu, purporting that the NEC meeting had been cancelled on the grounds that it was convened by the forum’s Secretary-General rather than its chairman.
The forum maintained that the meeting in question was duly convened by its chairman, Mamman Osuman, in strict accordance with the provisions of its constitution, and that any suggestion to the contrary was a misrepresentation of fact.
It further clarified that the chairman of its Board of Trustees, under the forum’s governing rules, holds no authority over such convening functions a pointed remark that signals internal friction over the boundaries of power within the organization’s leadership structure.
“The meetings are being called at the instance of the Chairman and not the Secretary General, irrespective of current arguments about the latter’s tenure,” the statement noted, in what appeared to be a thinly veiled reference to an ongoing internal dispute over executive roles.
The timing of the police action has drawn particular scrutiny, given that delegates from across northern Nigeria had already arrived in Kaduna ahead of the scheduled NEC meeting.
The sealing of the headquarters, critics argue, risks not only disrupting legitimate organizational proceedings but sending a chilling signal about the willingness of state apparatus to be deployed in what may amount to an internal organizational disagreement.
Notably, the forum revealed that an earlier National Working Committee meeting held on the same day proceeded without incident, and that all relevant security agencies had been duly informed of the forum’s scheduled engagements further undermining, in the ACF’s view, any justification for the police intervention.
With the clock ticking and delegates on standby, the ACF has escalated the matter to the highest levels of the country’s policing authority.
The forum formally called on Inspector-General of Police Tunji Disu to personally direct the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police to immediately unseal the premises and allow its activities to proceed unhindered.
The appeal carries with it an implicit warning: that the continued sealing of the headquarters threatens to derail not just Wednesday’s NEC meeting, but the credibility and operational independence of one of the North’s oldest and most prominent advocacy bodies.
As of press time, the Kaduna State Police Command had yet to offer a formal explanation for the action. When contacted, the command’s spokesperson, DSP Mansir Hassan, indicated he would respond to press inquiries, but no statement had been forthcoming before this report was filed.
That silence has only deepened the uncertainty surrounding the incident and fueled speculation about the nature of any instructions that may have prompted the deployment of police personnel to the ACF’s premises.
The ACF, founded in 1994 and long regarded as the collective voice of northern Nigerian interests, closed its statement on a note of cautious optimism, expressing hope that “rationality and good judgement will prevail.”
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The sealing of the Arewa Consultative Forum’s Kaduna headquarters by the Nigeria Police Force, on the eve of a scheduled National Executive Council meeting, raises serious questions about the misuse of state power in what appears to be an internal leadership dispute.
With no court order, no signed directive, and delegates already on ground, the action lacks any clear legal justification.
The Inspector-General of Police now holds the key to either restoring order or allowing a troubling precedent to stand.
