Arrest of Yari by DSS on Tinubu’s orders embarrassing, says Adeyanju
By Ishaya Ibrahim
A political activist, Deji Adeyanju, has condemned the arrest of former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari purportedly on the orders of President Bola Tinubu.
Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) on Thursday arrested Yari and took him into their custody.
The DSS has not given any reasons it arrested Yari who contested the Senate Presidency.
Yari lost the Senate Presidency by 19 votes to the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio.
The Peoples Gazette which first reported the arrest of Yari, claimed the Senator was picked up because he snubbed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s phone calls.
“He was asked why he ignored the president’s phone calls during the Senate leadership battle. He started arguing that he has every right to contest for the position and decisions about his political career should not come from the president,” the newspaper quoted a source in the DSS.
But The Nation, a newspaper owned by President Tinubu, claimed that Yari was arrested for rallying other lawmakers against Akpabio.
“The DSS got to know of this development that he is becoming a rallying point for opposition against Akpabio especially from the North and decided to pick him up for questioning,” the newspaper said.
Adeyanju, on his Twitter handle, said the DSS was deviating from its mandate by interfering in political horse trading.
He said: “The arrest of Senator Yari by the DSS on the orders of President Tinubu is beyond shameful and embarrassing to the secret police. Yari was indeed very courageous to have stood his ground and contested against Tinubu’s anointed candidate. Is the DSS now a political party?”
