Police Arrest Leader of Coalition over Katsina Protest

The Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Mr. Nastura Sharif, has been arrested by the police “in connection” with the protest against the massive killings in the north.

The group held the protest on Tuesday in Katsina, the hotbed of banditry. Similar protests are to hold in other northern state capitals on Saturday, June 20, 2020, according to a statement issued by the group on Monday..

Sharif’s arrest was announced in Kaduna on Wednesday in a statement by Aminu Adam, the group’s Director of Operations.
Adam said Sharif was arrested by the police after “the peaceful protest”.
The group had staged the protest, demanding an end to the persistent invasion and mass killings in rural communities across the northern states, especially in Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara, Sokoto and Benue.

He said after “the protest ended peacefully,” the Katsina State Police Commissioner, Mr. Sanusi Buba, invited leaders of the group for an interactive session in his office.
Adam said five of the officials of the group including himself and Sharif honoured the invitation by the police commissioner.

“After the protest ended peacefully, the Katsina State Police Commissioner, Mr. Sanusi Buba, invited us to his office for an interaction during which he told us that the Inspector General of Police wanted to see Sharif.

“The commissioner handed us to a team of policemen, headed by the OC (Officer in Charge), Federal Operations Bureau (FOB), who led us to Abuja.
“We drove from Katsina to Abuja with the police team in a white bus and a Hilux.

“However on getting to Force Headquarters in Abuja, they told us that Sharif is under arrest for the protest and they put him in detention,” Adam said.
The CNG and another group, the Coalition of Northern Youth Groups under the umbrella of
Coalition Against Killings in Northern Nigeria (CAKIN), had in separate statements on Monday in Kaduna, asked the federal government to stop the massive killings and raiding of communities in the north by bandits and the Boko Haram insurgents.

Both groups had demanded the sacking of service chiefs, lamenting that five years into President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the security situation has continued to escalate, leading to massive killings and destructions.

The Convener of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdullahi, had earlier on Sunday, expressed concern over banditry in the north, saying President Buhari has failed in addressing the security challenges bedevilling the region.

The CNG in the statement, had declared that besides the Katsina protest, similar protests against the killings are holding across the northern state capitals on Saturday, June 20, 2020.

The group had maintained that: “The rise in the spate of violence and bloodshed in Katsina, Borno, Taraba, Sokoto, Kaduna, Zamfara and several other northern communities has become a major trying point for everyone but the President who has remained detached from the reality.”

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