Northern communities residing in the southern part of the country have expressed anger over recent pronouncements by a group that all the northern communities had endorsed the candidature of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan.
It would be recalled that a group of northerners, after meeting President Jonathan in Delta State at the weekend, announced that all the northern communities in the south were in support of his second term ambition.
Speaking in separate interviews with BBC Hausa Service yesterday, some community leaders and residents in the southern states decried the said unanimous endorsement saying that most of them were not aware or contacted for their opinions.
A Muslim community leader in Abia, Alhaji Haladu Liman, in his reaction said “What worried my people was the announcement (of the Jonathan’s endorsement) without their consent. That would not have been the general opinion of the people. If you want to make such a statement on some people’s behalf, you need to inform them before going out to announce it”.
A northern youth leader in Enugu, Ahmed Mohammed, also said those who met with the president did that based on their own interests.
Also in Ibadan, Sa’idu Abdulkarim Maihula said that “anybody who knows the present situation in the north, where our people are being killed daily, they are being chased out of their home, properties burnt continually and you still have some section of our people making statements on our behalf is really annoying us”.
A northerner in Calabar, Amadu Ango, also denounced the endorsement of President Jonathan’s re-election bid, saying not all the northern people in the south were supporting Jonathan.