Arewa Youths Want Bafarawa’s Trial Separated from Dasuki’s
John Shiklam
The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has faulted the trial process of the former governor of Sokoto State over his alleged handling of the N600 million disbursed by the office of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki,.
Addressing a press conference yesterday in Kaduna, the forum noted that the last time Bafarawa appeared in court over the matter, it was agreed that his matter should be separated from the Dasuki case in order to accelerate his trial.
President of AYCF, Yerima Shettima, who addressed the press conference said the forum had observed that Dasuki has long-standing issues with President Buhari while Bafarawa has none.
According to him, it would be erroneous to place Dasuki’s case side-by-side that of Bafarawa because he never had anything against Buhari at any point in their interactions over the years.
The forum further said Bafarawa is not being subjected to established procedures of investigation, thereby making the agencies in charge of the case vulnerable to selective justice and called for an immediate correction in the processes in the spirit of fair play.
The AYCF president said after following all the developments related to the N600million given to six influential Nigerian politicians, including Bafarawa, by the office of the former NSA through Alhaji Bashir Yuguda, the forum objects to the singling out of the former governor for prosecution while leaving out others with similar charges.
“There seems to be concerted efforts to turn the tables against Bafarawa who is actually the only person who has added money from his personal income to ensure that it was judiciously distributed.
“We wonder why Bafarawa is willy-nilly being turned into the whipping boy of the agencies investigating this matter when, in actual fact, his case is clearly a non-issue in comparison to that of the other five prominent Nigerian politicians,” Shettima said.
The group maintained that much as it would not reject investigating Bafarawa over any form of suspicion, it insists that the law must be allowed to take its natural course without any partisan interference.
“To single out Bafarawa for trial therefore, amounts to selective justice, which is harmful to democracy and the rule of law.
“Available records at the disposal of our forum indicate that while the five other politicians have no evidence of whether they disbursed the monies given to them during the campaigns as promised or not, Bafarawa did pay all the stakeholders he was assigned to pay, through electronic funds transfer.
“This makes it easier to see that Bafarawa, instead of pocketing the money for his personal gains, decided to pay up as appropriate and even made voluntary additional contribution of N200,000 from his private savings. It is therefore only logical that Bafarawa merely delivered the message given to him transparently through electronic funds transfer,” the group said.