Leadership Crisis Deepens in ACF as Police Seal Kaduna Headquarters

The internal crisis rocking the Arewa Consultative Forum worsened on Tuesday after police operatives sealed the group’s headquarters in Kaduna ahead of an emergency meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC).

Reports confirmed that security personnel barricaded the ACF secretariat located on Sokoto Road in Kaduna, preventing members from accessing the premises for the scheduled NEC meeting.

In a statement issued by the forum’s National Publicity Secretary, Professor Tukur Muhammad-Baba, the ACF condemned the action, describing it as unlawful and politically motivated. The organization maintained that no court order existed restraining it from conducting its activities or meetings.

The forum also dismissed a separate notice allegedly linked to the Chairman of its Board of Trustees, Bashir Dalhatu, which claimed that the NEC meeting had been cancelled on the grounds that the convener lacked the authority to summon it. ACF leaders insisted that the Board of Trustees chairman has no constitutional power to suspend NEC meetings under the forum’s constitution.

However, the Nigeria Police Force in Kaduna denied sealing off the secretariat, stating that officers were deployed to prevent a possible breakdown of law and order following plans by rival factions within the organization to hold separate meetings at the same venue.

Police spokesperson DSP Mansur Hassan said the deployment was a preventive security measure aimed at avoiding clashes between the opposing groups.

The crisis within the ACF is believed to stem from disagreements over leadership authority and differing interpretations of the organization’s constitution, particularly regarding who has the power to convene or cancel NEC meetings.