THE Police in Borno State have reportedly arrested two supporters of the former Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, in Biu town and detained them in Maiduguri, the state capital.
Alongside the supporters, a legislative aide of the lawmaker was also arrested.
According to Daily Trust, Amina Kachalla, the aide’s wife, confirmed that her husband Shehu Usman Aliyu (Babandi), together with Tasiu Hassan Malgwi and Ibrahim Adamu, had been taken into custody.
She appealed to the police to release her husband who she claimed is the family’s breadwinner.
“We have been suffering since the day he was arrested,” she told the newspaper.
According to reports, the spokesperson of the Borno State Police Command, Kenneth Daso, confirmed the arrest and added that it was based on an intelligence report.
Daso did not however give details of the case but other supporters of the senator attributed the arrest to an aborted solidarity rally they organised over Ndume’s removal as chief whip of the Senate.
Ndume’s supporters, including clubs, associations, and groups for women and youth, had planned to hold a rally in Biu town last Saturday, but they later cancelled it because of the state’s allegedly unstable security situation.
There is tension among the senator’s supporters in southern Borno, who denounced the arrest and called it a witch-hunt.
It was also learned that the police authorities have obtained a court order to detain the alleged organisers of the solidarity rally until the investigation is completed.
On July 18, Ali Ndume, representing Borno South, was stripped of his role as the Chief Whip of the Senate.
The decision was taken following a letter from the national chairman of the All Progressive Congress, (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, and the party’s secretary, Bashir Ajibola, read at the plenary by the Senate President.
The ICIR reported that Ndume had alleged that ex-President Muhammadu Buhari was a more accessible leader and accused President Bola Tinubu of being out of touch with some of the issues plaguing the country and had been “fenced off by plutocrats.”
The APC national leaders interpreted these statements as “unguarded utterances” that were “against the federal government”, as contained in the letter.
The recent sack was the second time the lawmaker would be sacked as a principal officer in the 10th Senate, having served for 21 years in the chamber.
A reporter with the ICIR
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