ACF Crisis Escalates As Forum Suspends BoT Chair Dalhatu

|  ACF HQ still sealed off |  No financial infractions at BoT level, says Dalhatu

The apex northern socio-cultural organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has said it has suspended, with immediate effect, the chairman of its Board of Trustees, Alhaji Bashir M. Dalhatu, over alleged financial misconduct and constitutional breaches.

The sealed ACF national headquarters remained firmly under police control.

Police operatives had on Tuesday sealed the ACF national headquarters located at Sokoto Road, Kaduna.

However, the Kaduna State Police Command denied the report, insisting that its officers were deployed to the ACF premises to prevent a possible breakdown of law and order between two rival factions within the organisation.

Meanwhile, the ACF said the decision suspending the Board of Trustees chairman was reached at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the forum, presided over by its chairman, Mike Osuman (SAN), with members drawn from 18 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

But when LEADERSHIP enquired to know the venue of the NEC meeting, ACF national publicity secretary, Prof. Tukur Mohammed Baba, did not disclose it.

He said, “We got a venue outside our sealed national secretariat in Kaduna and paid for it. We held our meeting successfully there. We do not want to put the owner of the venue in a problem, which is the reason we did not disclose it,” he said.

Announcing Dalhatu’s suspension, ACF spokesperson Mohammed Baba, alongside the chairman of the Ethics and Conduct Committee, Prof. Mohammed Jamo, said the decision was based on allegations of financial misappropriation.

Speaking with journalists after the meeting held at an undisclosed venue in Kaduna, Muhammad-Baba said delegates from about 18 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory successfully convened the meeting after relocating from the ACF’s sealed headquarters to another venue in Kaduna.

He said the NEC condemned what it described as the unlawful restriction of access to its headquarters, insisting that it amounted to interference with the right to freedom of association and the organisation’s internal affairs.

According to him, the NEC maintained that there was no leadership crisis within the ACF.

The ACF spokesperson also said the meeting deliberated on the report of an Ethics and Conduct Committee set up to investigate a petition on financial management and governance practices within the forum.

Muhammad-Baba said the committee’s preliminary findings raised serious concerns requiring further investigation, particularly regarding due process and financial administration.

Based on the recommendations, the NEC passed a vote of no confidence in the BoT chairman, Dalhatu, and approved his immediate suspension pending further investigation.

He further revealed that the National Executive Committee of the forum also directed an immediate forensic audit of all financial activities of the ACF, including its Endowment Fund, with instructions to recover any funds found to have been improperly managed.

According to him, the NEC also reaffirmed its confidence in the current National Working Committee led by the forum’s chairman, Mike Mamman Osuman, SAN, and maintained the position of the secretary-general pending any constitutional review process.

The NEC also condemned the alleged police sealing-off of its headquarters, describing it as an unacceptable interference with its operations and constitutional rights.

Chairman of the ACF Ethics and Conduct Committee, Prof. Nuhu Mohammad Jamo, on his part, corroborated the explanation that the panel acted on a petition alleging financial and administrative misconduct against the BoT chairman.

Jamo recalled that the committee invited the affected official to respond to the allegations within 48 hours, but the official did not respond.

“Regrettably, most of our findings, if not all, indicate violations of the constitutional provisions of the ACF,” he said.

Earlier, before his suspension, ACF BoT chairman, Alhaji Bashir M. Dalhatu, in a statement on Wednesday, accused ACF secretary-general, Murtala Aliyu, of refusing to vacate his position after the expiration of his tenure.

Dalhatu further claimed that Aliyu’s refusal to leave was the cause of the crisis in the forum’s leadership.

According to him, “Recently, the Board of Trustees, in line with its duty of ensuring compliance with the provisions of the forum’s Constitution — ACF Constitution Section 24 — including respect for term limits and smooth leadership succession, took several steps which did not seem to have pleased some people, especially Mallam Murtala Aliyu, the secretary-general. As a result, he has devoted a great deal of time and energy to pulling down the entire ACF edifice.

“That, accordingly, these positions have, from 10 March 2026, become vacant. However, Mallam Murtala Aliyu, the Secretary-General, was allowed, at his request, to work on his handover notes and to conclude other departure formalities not later than Friday, 15 May 2026. But in a baffling twist of events, Murtala Aliyu, who, contrary to the ACF Constitution, is in his seventh year as Secretary-General, declared his rejection of all these terms of settlement. He is, interestingly, the only person among the four officials whose tenure ended who refuses to step down.”

ACF Money Not Missing – Dalhatu

Dalhatu, however, denied misappropriating the forum’s funds.

“There has, for instance, been no financial infraction committed whatsoever at the level of the BoT. Every single kobo collected as donations into the ACF Endowment Fund has been deposited safely in the bank; far away from the reach of the secretariat, the NEC, and, for that matter, the BoT,” he explained.

Several attempts to get ACF Secretary-General Murtala Aliyu to comment on the accusation were unsuccessful, as his phone was switched off.