Arewa groups deny planned Airport blockage

The CNG spokesman, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, in a statement, explained that it was not part of such plan, stressing that none of its officials had been invited by the DSS as reported.

Recall that a report had said Youth groups, comprising of NYU, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS), National Association of Colleges of Education Students (NACES), Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Northern Youths Initiative for Peace and Good Governance, had planned to disrupt peaceful activities at the airport on Wednesday to raise global awareness on the deplorable state of Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in Nigeria but that the DSS invitation distorted the plan.

The CNG spokesman, while reacting to the report, explained that his group was neither aware of any such plan, nor ever contacted by the organizers whom it does not even know in the first place.

According to the statement, “The CNG has not been known to jump unto a flight without actually knowing its destination and hereby dispels the report as untrue and an attempt by some popularity seekers to misuse its public rating as the single strongest voice in the region.”

The CNG added, “We have for long observed that a section of the national media has not been extremely careful in its reportage of circumstances surrounding the activities of the CNG and events that mostly affect the North.”

The spokesman explained that notwithstanding the well-known bias of this section of the media, CNG never made a habit of denouncing it at every occasion or on the slightest of breaches of decorum and etiquette, adding, “We were all along hoping that they would change to being more restrained in reporting on matters without resorting to overkill.”