TANKO Yakasai, father of Salihu Tanko Yakasai popularly known as Dawisu who was arrested last Friday by Department of State Services (DSS) for criticising President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) over rising spate of insecurity in the country, has engaged attorneys to help free his son from custody of the secret police.
After news of his arrest went viral Saturday morning, Peter Afunaya, spokesperson of the secret police, confirmed his arrest in a statement.
Afunaya said Dawisu was being investigated over issues beyond the expression of opinions in the social media.
While in detention, Dawisu who was media aide to Abdullahi Ganduje, Kano state governor, was relieved of his job by the governor, for making “unguarded comments and utterances.”
It was the second time in four months that he would be punished by his estranged principal.
Dawisu was suspended by Ganduje for criticising Buhari in the wake of #EndSARS protests that rocked the country in October 2020.
He had attacked the president for lacking empathy and keeping mute over the protests that was against police brutality and poor funding of the police by government.
He had tweeted: “I have never seen a government with zero empathy like that of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“So many times when his people are going through a difficult time and expect some sort of tap on shoulder to reassure them that he is in charge, but he fails to do so. The ‘I don’t care attitude’ is on another level.
“To speak to your own people over issues that are bedevilling them has become something like a favour you are doing to them.
“Over and over again, you cannot spare five minutes to address the nation to calm them down, the same people you went to the 36 states to beg for their votes, it is heart-breaking.”
His suspension lasted two weeks before he was reinstated.
Recently, Dawisu asked President Buhari to resign over his inability to prevent the abduction of schoolgirls in Zamfara State.
He tweeted: “Clearly, we as APC government, at all levels, have failed Nigerians in the number one duty we were elected to do which is to secure lives and 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.
“Just last week it was #freekagaraboys, today we have anew hashtag #RescueJangebeGirls, who knows tomorrow what hashtag we will come up with? Perhaps one for ourselves when we get caught up in one of these daring attacks.
“This is sad and heartbreaking, I feel helpless and hopeless. “I completely agree. Hypocrisy is in our DNA. Imagine what’s happening in the North now under GEJ or OBJ, what you will hear is he’s the enemy of the North and Muslims, but here we are, being ravaged by all sorts of insecurity but no collective rage…”
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He has disappeared since he made that comment, and many of his friends and relations had raised the alarm over his sudden disappearance, but his father, was sure of the whereabouts of his son.
And he has secured the services of attorneys from H. A. Gudaji I & Co, who are requesting the director-general of the DSS, Yusuf Bichi, to grant the junior Yakasai an administrative bail.
Predicating their letter, dated Saturday 27 February, 2021 on the 1999 constitution (as amended) and other relevant laws, the lawyers said as an agency created, governed and guided by law, they wanted the head of DSS to grant them attorney-client access to the detained politician and his release on administrative bail.
The letter was signed by Aremya’u Yusuf Abubakr (Esq.) for H. A. Gudaji & Co.
The ICIR reports that while Dawisu was punished twice by Ganduje within four months over his “unguarded utterances,” the governor picked no offence when his estranged aide attacked deposed Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi over the same incident in November 2019.
The young Yakasai told Sanusi to “stop opening his filthy mouth” while responding to his comments on abduction of children from Kano to the South-East for commercial purposes.
The deposed Emir had blamed parental irresponsibility in northern part of the nation on the crime, but Dawisu objected, using language culturally believed to be insulting to the elders, especially a revered monarch.
He had tweeted: “A very reckless comment to make. I wonder if any of his relatives get kidnapped or stolen, he will act the same way. The kids are not almajiris for goodness sake. SLS (Sanusi Lamido Sanusi) should have kept quiet instead of opening his filthy mouth to make such insensitive remarks. Nonsense!”
But the tweets attracted no condemnation from the government which was in serious rift with the Emir at the time.
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After unresolved feud that lasted for at least two years, the governor eventually deposed Sanusi on March 9, 2020, revealing a year thereafter that the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria was removed because he could not guard his mouth.
A foremost Buhari’s critic, Aisha Yesufu said in a video seen by The ICIR that the arrest of Dawisu by the DSS was uncalled for.
She questioned the rationale behind the DSS action, and supported the comments of the detained politician.
Yesufu said if anybody “says the truth” by criticizing the APC government, the government would be uncomfortable and order arrest of the critic.
She said Dawisu was arrested for saying the “truth,” adding that people who are dissatisfied with the government performance would not stop criticising it.
“If they will arrest all of us, we will not keep quiet. If they keep on picking us, there are people that will still talk, that APC government is a fraud,” she said in the video recorded in Hausa language.
According to her, she’s been demanding that President Buhari resign but he refuses because of the “comfort” he enjoys in office.
She said the APC government had been boasting that the president would not step down until he finishes his tenure.
The opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) also condemned the arrest in a statement.
Similarly, the Social Economic Rights and Accountability Projects (SERAP) frowned at the arrest of Yakasai.
The ICIR had reported how over 881 students had been kidnapped under the Buhari administration.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2022. Contact him via email @ [email protected].