Concerned Arewa Citizens sends bill to Kano Assembly for registration of Southerners

...We’re yet to receive it, says Kano Assembly

A public bill has been sent to Kano State House of Assembly requesting it to pass it as law, asking that all Southerners residing or running businesses in the state be registered. A copy of the proposed bill, signed by Audu Bulama Bukari and Sunusi Umar Sadiq, the President and

General Secretary of a group called Concerned Arewa Citizens was made available to Weekly Trust in Kano, and it stated that it is meant to protect the state against robbery, kidnapping and other criminal acts.

The group proposed the bill to be “enforced on the 1st day of August, 2014” and to be cited as “Kano State Registration of Southerners and Allied Matters Law, 2014.” Portions of the proposed bill read: “This bill is proposed for your consideration to protect our state against drugs and human trafficking, kidnappings, baby factories, armed robbery, importation of firearms, pipeline vandalism and other terrorist activities which have become prevalent in the South.”

The proposed bill gives the meaning of ‘Southerner’ as indigene of any of the seventeen (17) states in the South that may be Abia, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo and Rivers. Some of the bill’s recommendations include the part that says: “No Southerner wishing to enter the boundaries of the State shall be permitted to do so unless he is duly registered with the appropriate authority.” Another reads: “Any Southerner registered in accordance with the foregoing provisions shall be issued with an Identity Card…”

The Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly, Isyaku Ali Danja, was unavailable for comment. But spokesperson of the House, Kabiru Salisu, said they are yet to receive the bill. He told Weekly Trust yesterday that a group of lawyers have indicated their interest to sponsor a public bill on the registration of Southerners resident in Kano. “Yes, a group of lawyers have intimated us about their intention to sponsor the bill but they have not yet submitted it. The legislators will first study it before anything else,” he said.

Recently in the news, the group called the Igbo Leaders of Thought disclosed that it had articulated a “security awareness programme” which the South-East Governor’s Forum could work with in order to “secure Igboland from Boko Haram insurgents”. Portion of the group’s statement posed the following question: “Why should all the police commissioners posted to the South-East Fulani/Muslims? Are there no police commissioners from the Middle-Belt, South-South or South-West that could be posted [there]?”

It also demanded that the CPs Abubakar Adamu Mohamed of Enugu, Usuman Gwari of Anambra, Maigari Dikko of Ebonyi, Abdulmajid Ali of Imo and Adamu Ibrahim of Abia should be redeployed immediately. “As we feel uncomfortable with the officers in charge of the South-East, as Boko Haram boasts of plans to attack,” another part read.

Leaders of non-indigenes in Kano under the umbrella of Ethnic Traditional Leaders Forum yesterday kicked against the calls by the two groups, saying the status quo should be maintained. In a communiqué issued at the end of an emergency meeting, they said they are in total support of the posting of non-natives as heads of security agencies in states.
The leaders, in the communiqué which was jointly signed by Eze Ndigbo of Kano, Chief Boniface Ebekwe, Oba Yoruba of Kano, Abdullahi Saliu Olowo and Fred Akhigbe among others, said unity and peaceful co-existence is good for all.

When Weekly Trust contacted for the position of the Kano State government on the issues, Commissioner of Information, Abubakar Nuhu Danburam, said he has travelled to Saudi Arabia for lesser Hajj. “I’m not in the position to comment,” he said over the phone.

However, in an interview earlier this week, Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso raised alarm that President Goodluck Jonathan is plotting to be Life President by using divide-and-rule tactics.
It can be recalled that last month there was a major flap about Northerners being asked to register and carry I.D cards by Imo State authorities, a development which was put to rest after Governor Rochas Okorocha denied that was the case.

A public bill is a legislative bill affecting only a single person, group, or area and it is submitted by individuals or groups from the general public.

via Daily Trust