The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has refuted claims that it is supporting Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The forum which spoke through the Kano state chapter asserted that reports claiming that the ACF is supporting Atiku are false, intended to mislead the public and should be therefore discarded.
While speaking to journalists in Kano, Chairman of the State’s forum Dr Faruk Umar said “we are disassociating ourselves from that statement because the ACF is not supporting any presidential candidate and we have allowed our members to use their discretion to elect candidates of their choice.
“The National secretariat of the ACF has confirmed to us that they have never taken such a position and have told our members to choose their preferred candidates.” He said.
He pointed out that the ACF had initially told political parties that it wasn’t endorsing or supporting any political party as it was a neutral body and reports that suggested that the forum was endorsing any candidate will mean the ACF wasn’t keeping to its words hence the disassociation of support to any political party.
Reacting to the recent violence that took place in the state Dr Umar said “Two months ago, we had an interactive session with gubernatorial candidates in Kano and they signed an agreement to conduct their campaigns peacefully. The recent happenings in the state is not encouraging and we are appealing to the party leaders to harken to their words.