The National President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Mallam Yerima Usman Shettima, who last year issued a quit notice to Igbos in the North, has reportedly concluded plans to contest for a seat in the House of Representatives.
Shettima is believed to be interested in representing Kaduna North Federal Constituency under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Daily Sun reported.
To be able to realise his ambition, Shettima last week resigned his position with the Young Democratic Party (YDP), where he was the Deputy National Chairman, claiming that the resignation was only “just to devote my time to deep reflection and take a very close look at my participation in politics and make some necessary adjustments.”
He was also reported to have relocated permanently to Kaduna from Lagos, where he was based.
Read Also: 2019: Presidential Aspirant Denies Secretly Working For Buhari To Get Kemi Adeosun’s Job
The Herald recalls how Shettima’s AYCF on Tuesday, June 6, 2017, issued a three-month ultimatum for all Igbos to quit the North by October 1.
During a press conference in Kaduna, the AYCF had blamed the continued agitations by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) for an independent Biafra nation for its decision to issue the quit notice.
The quit notice led to a national outburst of criticisms against Shettima’s AYCF, with many prominent Nigerians, including Femi Falana (SAN), demanding an apology and calling for the arrest of Shettima and other leaders of the group.
But instead of issuing an apology, AYCF and a coalition of other Arewa groups restated the ultimatum at a press conference in Kano on Thursday, August 3, 2017.
”We have never at any given time lifted that quit notice, because if we are to do so, it would have been after a meeting that would be called soon,” Nastura Shariff, the chairman of the coalition, told the media in the company of AYCF Chairman, Shettima Yerima.