The Arewa Forum of Conscience, a Pressure Group, has faulted the planned adoption of a single Presidential Candidate by some purported Northern leaders for the 2023 general election.

This is contained in a statement by Musa Getso, the group’s Chairman, Coordinating Committee on Tuesday in Zaria.

Gesto said the plan does not reflect the yearning and aspirations of the majority of the electorate in the North.

“We are aware that the move has led to a meeting called by the Arewa Consultative Forum, a section of the Northern Elders Forum and other peripheral associations in Kaduna on Saturday, Oct. 15.

“We are also aware that the invitation extended to other political parties candidates was a mere smokescreen as all clandestine arrangements have been concluded for the group to announce the Peoples Democratic Party Candidate, Atiku Abubakar as the sole consensus candidate for the North.

“We feel obligated to respond to the destabilizing move by a people who are so desperate as not to mind the consequences of further causing general disaffection by exploiting the nation’s regional, religious and tribal diversity.

“The proposed agenda is not in the character of the North to engage in counterproductive sectional politics as contemplated by Atiku and his paid groups of people who call themselves elders and leaders of Northern Nigeria,” he said.

Gesto added: “We hereby on behalf of the larger majority of the northern population call on the Nigerian public to disregard any pronouncement suggesting that any candidate, not the least Atiku Abubakar has been endorsed as the sole northern candidate.

“We tell the world that any such pronouncement from anybody or group is not made on behalf of the people of northern Nigeria who have been known for playing cosmopolitan and pan-Nigerian politics,” he said.