Former Governor of Zamfara State,
Senator Ahmed Yerima, was arrested on Saturday by the Kaduna State
Police Command for allegedly making an inciting statement while on a
live Hausa phone-in-programme, Hannu Dayawa, on Radio Nigeria, Kaduna
State.
Yerima, who was a guest was on the radio
programme was quoted to have said if the Independent National Electoral
Commission failed to register the newly formed All Progressives
Congress, leaders of the party would embark on a peaceful protest to the
Eagle Square, Abuja until INEC registered the party.
The statement drew the ire of the state
Police Commissioner, Mr. Olufemi Adenaike, who stormed the radio station
with his men and whisked Yerima away to the police headquarters where
the former governor was held for three hours.
It was learnt that supporters of the
Senator later mobilised themselves to the police headquarters but were
resisted by the policemen on guard.
Yerima was however released after being interrogated by the police.
The CP told journalists that the
Senator, who is one of the coordinators of the APC, was not arrested but
merely invited to clear the air on the statement he made at the radio
station.
The commissioner said he was inundated
with calls from concern citizens of the state on the inciting statement.
“All I did was to go to the radio house and I met the distinguished
Senator and I said, Please, I want to know what you said,” he said.
The CP added that, “He (Yerima) said,
‘no problem, let me finish. And I will come with you to the office.’
That was what transpired.”
“If you were in my shoes as the
commissioner of police and you start getting calls from concerned
citizens of the state that somebody has made an inciting statement on
radio, will you go to burukutu (local brew) joint and start drinking? You have to make a move.
“I am surprised that people are saying
many things like, ‘CP has arrested him, CP has orders from Abuja.’ The
distinguished senator is not under arrest.
“All we did was to find out what he
said. And he said they were going to go on a peaceful demonstration. And
I said define what you mean by peaceful demonstration, considering that
Kaduna State is a volatile state. I don’t want anything to happen in my
domain. I am completely satisfied with what he has said. And he is free
to go. There was no directive from anywhere. We were doing things on
our own.”
At the police headquarters, the former governor was made to write a statement on what he said during the radio programme.
The statement read in parts: “My name is
Senator Ahmed Rufai Sani former Governor of Zamfara State, a Nigerian
and now a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria Kaduna invited me for a phone-in
programme which took place today March 9, 2013 at 10am and ended at
12pm. I was asked if there is any move not to register our new party,
APC, what can we do? And my response was that if we met all the legal
requirements and INEC refused to register us, we shall embark on
peaceful protest to INEC until we are registered. Then, the moderator
asked me what I meant by peaceful protest? Then I responded by saying
just like it happened in Egypt.
“We can go to Eagle Square together with
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Sardauna Kano, Alhaji
Ibrahim Shekarau, and others to mobilise people without using any weapon
for a peaceful protest until our party is registered.”
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