The State Security Service, SSS, has denied arresting Salihu Tanko-Yakasai, a media aide to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, over his comments against President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Recall that in the wake of schoolgirls’ abduction in Zamfara State, Mr Tanko-Yakasai, on Friday via his verified Twitter handle, had described the APC government as failure.
Shortly after his comments, Mr Tanko-Yakasai went underground and his whereabouts, according to his friends, could not be ascertained, resulting to many insinuations that the SSS might have whisked him away.
The Kano State Director of SSS, Muhammad Alhassan, when contacted, denied the reports, insisting that secret police never even invited the media aide,let alone arrest.
Mr Alhassan said: “We have not arrested or even invited Salihu. Don’t forget he is our friend, and sometimes he advises us on issues of security in Kano.”
Salihu Tanko-Yakasai in our custody, DSS confirms
The Department of State Services (DSS) has confirmed that Salihu Tanko-Yakasai, the sacked media aide to Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano, is in its custody.
The former media aide was sacked by the Kano governor on Saturday.
Tanko-Yakasai’s investigation by the DSS, comes hours after he criticised the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, following the abduction of over 300 students from the Government Girls Secondary School in Jangebe, Zamfara state.
“Clearly, we as the APC government, at all levels, have failed Nigerians in the number 1 duty we were elected to do which is to secure lives & properties. Not a single day goes by without some sort of insecurity in this land. This is a shame! Deal with terrorists decisively or resign,” he had tweeted.
The whereabouts of the former media aide had generated concern on social media on Saturday, but Tanko Yakasai, his father who is also a founding member of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), had said the DSS arrested him on his way to a barber’s shop.
In a statement issued on Saturday evening, Peter Afunanya, DSS spokesman, confirmed that the former media aide was in the agency’s custody.
“This is to confirm that Salihu Tanko-Yakasai is with the Department of State Services. He is being investigated over issues beyond the expression of opinions in the social media as wrongly alleged by sections of the public,” the statement reads.