From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
The Northern Youths Council of Nigeria (NYCN) on Tuesday withdrew its petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Senator Jibrin Barau (APC – Kano North).
According to the group, the withdrawal became necessary after discovering that the petition was earlier written based on misinformation provided by unsuspecting political rivals of the lawmaker.
NYCN had in the petition dated October 7, 2021, and addressed to the EFCC Chairman, Abdularasheed Bawa, accused the senator, who serves as the Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriation, of money laundering, budget fraud and unlawful enrichment of his family.
NYCN President Isah Abubakar, who addressed a press conference at Arewa House Kaduna on Tuesday, tongue-lashed politicians especially from Kano, warning politicians of northern extraction to desist from using the group against political opponents ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Isah told reporters that the group had since October 12 withdrawn the said petition from the EFCC after diligent discussions.
‘Arising from multiple submissions received by our leadership after our petition to your Commission dated 7th October 2021 on the above subject, we have discovered that our dear organisations as voices of the voiceless youths of Northern Nigeria are about to be used unknowingly to fight a political battle which is far from the objective and core value of the council,’ Abubakar stated.
‘A lot of interest ranging from political and others have been discovered lately to be the power behind the scenes sending reports and claiming to be using our dear organization to fight Senator Jibrin Barau which we consider the unethical and deliberate act to use our dear organizations to front a political fight with the Distinguished Senator.
‘We acted on the reports submitted to our secretariat with the intent that they are of genuine concern but event afterwards proved otherwise, hence, our resolved to distance from the murky waters of politics.
‘As we stated in our notice of withdrawal of the said petition, our Secretariat was furnished with misleading information concerning the Distinguished Senator, as people who desire the best for our country, we quickly jumped into writing the said petition without doing a proper background check, the same way a Member of the National Institute is doing, alas, we found the information to be false.
‘To this end, we are glad to inform the public and the person that contracted Dr Jimweta to note that we have since written to the EFCC and notified them of our intention to withdraw the said petition.
‘We understand that 2023 is already here, we expect to see more satanic moves against popular potential aspirants like Senator Jibrin Barau who has done much for his constituency both infrastructure and empowerment wise.’