Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have reportedly arrested and detained for two nights a former Zamfara State governor, Abdulaziz Yari, according to 9NEWS NIGERIA report.
According to Peoples Gazette, Yari was allegedly arrested after multiple telephone calls to his lines from President Bola Tinubu rang through last month following the tussle for the Senate President of the National Assembly.
One senior security officer and a State House aide disclosed that the DSS arrested Yari on Thursday morning and detained him for “thinking the president is a joke,” as one official put it.
“He was asked why he ignored the president’s phone calls during the Senate leadership battle,” an official said.
“He started arguing that he has every right to contest for the position and decisions about his political career moves should not come from the president.
“The president was trying to appeal to him to stand down his ambition to make sure any fate similar to how Bukola Saraki became Senate President in 2015 won’t be repeated.
“We all knew that Saraki’s emergence back then was the first error President Buhari made, and it crippled his first four years in office,” the official allegedly told Gazette.
Sources said Yari received a call from Yusuf Bichi, the DSS director-general, to report at the agency headquarters for an urgent discussion.
Upon arrival, the former governor was asked to wait for Bichi, who purportedly stepped out.
But the senator was delayed throughout the day by a phalanx of armed agents, only to be told at about 10:00 p.m. Thursday that he won’t be going home.
Yari’s planned visit with other Senate colleagues to former President Ibrahim Babangida on Friday was consequently aborted.
“His phones were confiscated, and he may be spending days, if not weeks, in custody,” the source added.
It was gathered that Yari was also asked about transactions he received from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which officials are treating as suspicious but which the senator reportedly explained were legitimate.
“He told them the money from the CBN was from consultancy he did for the forum of governors and he still has an outstanding balance to collect from the CBN,” a source said.
As at the time of filing this report, 9NEWS NIGERIA cannot independently confirm this report as efforts to get the comment of the DSS proved abortive.
