Yari not invited for ignoring Tinubu’s phone call – DSS

The Department of State Services has confirmed that a former governor of Zamfara State and senator representing Zamfara West, Abdulaziz Yari, was invited for questioning.

The DSS spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, however, did not state the reason for Yari’s invitation by the secret police.

But he described as laughable claim that Yari was invited for shunning a phone call by President Bola Tinubu.

Yari had in June obtained an order of the Federal High Court in Abuja to restrain security agencies, including the DSS, from arresting him.

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The ex-governor had claimed that there were plots to arrest him for daring to join the race for the Senate presidency against the arrangement of the ruling All Progressives Congress for the Senator representing Akwa Ibom North-West, Godwill Akpabio, to emerge the Senate President of the 10th National Assembly.

But Afunanya, who refused to state the reason behind Yari’s invitation, said the senator knew the reason.

He said, “It is petty, if not laughable, to report that Yari was invited for refusing to pick up the President’s call. This is the height of junk journalism. Yari knows why he was invited.

“In fact, the service denies all the allegations as they lack any factual basis or credibility. They are only figments of the creators’ imaginations. This is more so that the publishers in question have been noted in and outside the country for their notoriety for peddling fake news, sensational and gutter journalism. Without a modicum of proper and civilised behaviour, they indulge in character assassinations and sundry blackmail as a business.”

Afunaya also dismissed claims that the DSS was snooping on judges on the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

According to Afunanya, the DSS respects the rule of law as well as “the independence and autonomy of other agencies, including the judiciary and legislature.”

“It will not shirk its responsibilities or allow some detractors to prevent it from undertaking its statutory duties or carrying out lawful orders by constituted authorities.

“If Yari or anyone else is to be invited or taken into custody, the service will not hesitate to do so. This is as far as that is procedurally done within the confines of the law,” he said.