A former Special Adviser on Media to Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Salihu Tanko Yakasai, has been released from Department of States Security (DSS) custody, last night.
His father, elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai confirmed his son’s freedom to Daily Trust.
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Yakasai in an earlier phone interview said that he was not disturbed by the arrest and detention of his son, by the DSS on Friday.
The First Republic politician said he was arrested 10 times during his political struggles and that this did not come to him as a surprise. Alhaji Yakasai said he had some initial concern when the whereabouts of his son was not known “but having realised that he is with the DSS, then I’m not worried.”
Recall that the DSS arrested Salihu, the sacked media aide to Governor Ganduje, on Friday, after he criticised the All Progressives Congress (APC) government over the handling of security in the country.
However, hours after his arrest, Governor Ganduje relieved Yakasai of his appointment as Special Adviser on Media.
The Commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, who communicated the governor’s directive through a statement on Saturday, said the dismissal was based on Yakasai’s “continued unguarded comments and utterances which are deemed contrary to the stand of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government which he is serving.”
In his reaction to the arrest, Tanko Yakasai said it was not abnormal as he was used to such kinds of treatment.
He said he was arrested in 1953 when he was 30 years old.
“Well, to a person like you, it will even be like abnormality. But to me, I’m used to it and I suffered from this type of arrests. The first time I was taken to prison was in 1953, when I was just 30 years or there about and since then I have been suffering this kind of thing. I was arrested, my wife was arrested and my father was also arrested. It is abnormal but not something that came to me as a surprise.”
He added that his son did not break any law for speaking the truth that he and their party, APC, had failed.
On whether the family would consider taking a legal action, the 96-year-old said they were waiting for the outcome of their negotiations with the DSS.
“His siblings, elder sister and elder brother went to the DSS office and they confirmed to them that he is there. They even saw him too. They met him face-to-face. But they asked them to go back today. So, we are waiting to hear from them,” he said.
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