We are not illegal – Atyap association vows to challenge El-Rufai’s proscription

The Atyap Community Development Association (ACDA) has vowed to challenge the proscription order issued against it during the administration of Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai.

According to a statement issued yesterday by the group’s National President, Samuel Achie, the Kataf Youth Development Association was duly registered as a Corporate Trustee with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Abuja on October 4, 1989.

He stated that the name was later changed to Atyap Community Development Association and registered on January 27, 2010 with registration number CAC/11/No 36929.

Achie also stated that the group is not involved in any illegal activity and has not committed any act worthy of being banned.

“It is on record that the ACDA, particularly during the tenure of Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has never engaged in any unlawful activity, even in the face of unnecessary provocation and attacks,” he says, “nor received any notice or complaint of any unlawful activity from the former Kaduna State government or any quarters whatsoever that would have warranted any caution, let alone proscription.”

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He urged the members to remain calm and law-abiding while legal proceedings to overturn the proscription order are underway.

It was recalled that shortly before the end of his term, El-Rufai banned the Atyap Community Development Association.

El-Rufai declared the southern-Kaduna group an illegal association in a statement issued on Sunday, May 28th by his media adviser, Muyiwa Adekeye, who stated that the proscription order was issued by the Governor in the exercise of the powers granted to him by Section 60 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law No. 5 of 2017, and Section 5 (2) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution.

The Atyap community is located in the State’s Zango Kataf local government area.