The headquarters of the Arewa Consultative Forum on Sokoto Road in Kaduna remained under lock and key and heavy police watch on Thursday as the leadership crisis rocking the apex northern socio-political body deepened into a full-blown constitutional war, with the National Executive Committee suspending Board of Trustees Chairman Bashir Dalhatu over allegations of financial misconduct and high-handedness, and Dalhatu firing back by declaring the positions of key NEC officials including Secretary-General Murtala Aliyu vacant, each side accusing the other of overstepping its authority under a constitution that insiders say created overlapping powers that made the crisis inevitable.
Three truckloads of police operatives were stationed within and around the ACF facility after both factions issued separate notices to hold parallel NEC meetings at the same venue and at the same time, a confrontation that intelligence reports indicated could degenerate into violence.
The crisis, which involves the fate of over N3.9 billion raised during the ACF’s 25th anniversary endowment fund drive, allegations of questionable financial movements, disputes over tenure interpretation, and a structural contradiction between two powerful organs of the forum, represents the most serious threat to the ACF’s institutional integrity since its founding.
The crisis pits two powerful organs of the ACF against each other, each led by prominent northern figures.
The Board of Trustees is led by Alhaji Bashir M. Dalhatu, the Wazirin Dutse of Jigawa State, who served as Minister of Transport and Aviation in 1993 during the Ernest Shonekan Interim National Government, Minister of Power and Steel from 1993 to 1997, and Minister of Internal Affairs from 1997 to 1998 under the Abacha regime.
The NEC is led by Mamman Mike Osuman, SAN, OFR. who served as State Counsel in Benue-Plateau, Attorney-General of Benue State, and is also an academic.
The BoT, which comprises at least three persons from each senatorial district across the 19 northern states and the FCT totalling 174 members, controls all movable and immovable properties and interests belonging to the forum.
The NEC, operating through the National Working Committee, is vested with policy formulation, programme implementation, budget preparation, and financial administration of the forum.
The overlap between these mandates, particularly over finances, has created the conditions for the current confrontation.
NEC Suspends BoT Chairman
On Wednesday, May 6, the NEC, meeting at a different location in Kaduna after being denied access to the ACF headquarters, suspended Dalhatu over what its spokesman Professor Tukur Baba described as multiple infractions.
The NEC accused the BoT chairman of overstepping his authority in several instances, including interference in matters reserved for other organs of the forum and the cancellation of a duly convened meeting without constitutional backing.
The NEC also raised concerns over the handling of the ACF Endowment Fund, citing “questionable movement of monies” and Dalhatu’s involvement as a signatory to accounts, which it described as “inconsistent with governance norms.”
The NEC ordered a comprehensive forensic audit of all financial records of the forum, “with a mandate to recover any funds found to have been misapplied.”
The suspension was based on the findings of an investigative committee led by Professor Nuhu Jamo.
Dalhatu Fights Back
Dalhatu dismissed the allegations and denied any wrongdoing in exclusive interviews, insisting that due process was followed in the management of the endowment funds.
In a countermove, the BoT chairman announced that the positions of several key officials had become vacant upon the expiration of their tenures, targeting Secretary-General Murtala Aliyu and others.
Others affected by the BoT’s action include Deputy Chairman of the BoT Senator Fred Orti from Benue State, Vice Chairman Ambassador Ibrahim Mai Sule from Yobe State, and Deputy Chairman of the NEC and Wazirin Katsina Senator Ibrahim Ida.
Dalhatu insisted the NEC does not have the power to suspend him, maintaining that his removal of officials whose tenures had expired was not arbitrary but constitutional.