Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has faulted the arrest by the police of a leader of the Katsina protesters, Nastura Ashir Shariff.
It also said that the arrest was a breach of his constitutional rights, and therefore called for his immediate release.
Sheriff is the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), a youth-based organisation that protested the insecurity in the north in Katsina on June 16.
They had also announced a second phase of the protest on Saturday, June 20.
The national president of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Yerima Shettima, said that the youth leader was reportedly taken to Abuja Force Headquarters of the Nigeria Police for protesting against the killings in Katsina State, the homestate of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Shettima said that the demand for unconditional release of Shariff was based on Constitutional provision of the rights of citizens to peaceful protest.
The group said it was odd for a peaceful protester to be arrested by the police under a democratic system of governance, saying, “even President Buhari once benefitted from peaceful street protest many years back and it was helpful to his democratic struggles.”