Mr Salihu Tanko: sacked, arrested

By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

Nigeria secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS) on Sunday confirmed that Salihu Tanko-Yakasai, former media adviser Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, of Kano State is in its custody.

The confirmation is coming nearly 24 hours after the media aide went missing and unreachable on phone to his family members and friends.

The Kano office of the DSS had earlier denied arresting Yakasai who went missing after he called for resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari and governors elected on the platform of APC over continuous mass abduction of students from their schools in the Northern part of the country.

But The Cable quoted Peter Afunanya, DSS spokesman, as saying in a statement on Saturday evening that the sacked media aide of the Kano Governor is indeed in the custody of the secret police.

“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.

Governor Ganduje had earlier in the day announced the sack of Yakasai in the midst of the confusion over his whereabouts  for asking President Buhari’s resignation over his failure to tackle widespread abductions in the country.

According to a statement issued by the state government, Tanko-Yakasai  was sacked over his continued unguarded comments and utterances which are deemed contrary to the stand of the (APC) government which he is serving.

The state commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, who conveyed the governor’s directive in a statement Saturday, said the sack is with immediate effect.

Yakasai was also suspended by the Kano State Government in 2020 for criticing the failure of the President to address Nigerians amid the national outrage as well as days of online and offline protests against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force.

“I have never seen a government with zero empathy like that of President Muhammadu Buhari,” Yakasai stated shortly before the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu announced the disbandment of SARS in Abuja on Sunday afternoon.

“So many times when his people are going through a difficult time and expect some sort of tap on the shoulder to reassure them that he is in charge, but he failed to do so.

“The ‘I don’t care attitude’ is on another level.

“To speak to your own people over issues that are bedeviling 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 heartbreaking.”

However, the Kano State Government responded to Yakasai’s statement with a suspension letter which takes effect immediately.

But he was recalled later.