The group said Mahdi’s recent comments were laced with a lot of tribal and religious slurs aimed at pitching Christians against Muslims.
The Coalition of Northern Elders For Peace and National Unity, CNEFPNU, on Wednesday accused Shehu Mahdi, a businessman and activist of hate speech.
The group said Mahdi’s recent comments were laced with a lot of tribal and religious slurs aimed at pitching Christians against Muslims.
The group described the viral video of Mahdi urging Northern Christians not to vote for Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, as provocative and capable of instigating ethnoreligious tension in the country.
CNEFPNU in a statement jointly signed by its National Coordinator, Prof Abdulkadir Mohammed Gummi, and National Secretary, Hajiya Hadiza M. Gwazo, the Northern Elder Group, urged Northern voters to disregard Mahdi’s call and vote for presidential candidates of their choice, devoid of ethnic, religious, or political consideration.
The statement read in part, “Mahdi’s charge is laced with a lot of tribal and religious slur aimed at causing disaffection between Northerners and Southerners, Northerners against Igbos and Northerners against Southeast in general.
“As responsible Northern elders, we view the video by Shehu Mahdi, as a deliberate attempt to instigate ethnoreligious tension in the country, hence our call on relevant security agencies to take him in immediately for questioning.
“We further enjoin our people to disregard the provocative comments made by Mahdi, even as we urge them to vote for presidential candidates of their choice, devoid of ethnic, religious, or political consideration”.
The Northern group, however, described Obi as a detribalised and patriotic Nigerian.
“May we also clarify that having followed Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate, for a long time now, and we can say, without equivocation, that he is a detribalised, and patriotic Nigerian, who has the interest of the ordinary people at heart,” the statement said.
“The Peter Obi campaign is broad-based and all-inclusive. His track record of inclusivity is not in doubt. It is callous for anyone to accuse Peter Obi of running to represent the interest of Biafra. Peter Obi is running to represent the interest of all Nigerians”.
Mahdi had urged Christians in Northern Nigerians not to vote for Obi, describing the presidential candidate’s main agenda as a bid to actualise Biafran Republic.
The activist further alleged that Northern Christians would derive no benefit if they vote for him because that would not stop them from facing discrimination in the southern region, regardless of their faith.
He said: “This is a message to my northern Christian brothers and sisters, it’s specifically for you. Why? Because if you go to the South-South, Southeast, or Southwest, a Christian from the Northern part of Nigeria is a northerner.
“If there is a breakdown in Enugu, they kill everybody, whether a Muslim or Christian coming from the North. This is the record that is on the ground. Nobody can deny this. Christians of northern extraction, think wisely, behave, you have no business voting for a southern candidate based on Christianity.
“At the end of the day, his agenda is not yours. His agenda is his own tribe. If you pick Obi, his agenda is not Christianity. He could be a categorical Catholic, he is a die-hard Biafran. If you vote Obi, you are voting for a Biafra. No mincing of the words.
“Tell me, a Christian from Taraba, Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara, Kebbi, Kaduna, Sokoto, Bauchi, or Gombe, tell me the benefit you will derive by voting Obi and the answer is that there is none.
“If you want to know that the answer is true, go to Enugu, go to Aba, go to Nnewi, go to Akwa Ibom, go to every part of the southeast, and ask for land to build a church, you will never have one. But all over the North, there are churches owned by people from the south. The land is owned by them, the church is owned by them.”