- Yari is the Senator representing Zamfara West
- Yari strongly bidded for the Senate Presidency in the 10th Assembly
Abdulaziz Yari, a former state governor and senator for Zamfara West, has been released by the Department of State Services (DSS).
According to reports, Senator Yari was freed last night at around 11 p.m. after being arrested and questioned by DSS agents.
Recall that on Thursday, Yari, a candidate for Senate President, visited the DSS office and was subsequently imprisoned.
It’s still unclear why Senator Yari was held and questioned.
According to Peoples Gazette, Yari was allegedly arrested after multiple telephone calls to his lines from President Bola Tinubu rang through last month following the tussle for the Senate President of the National Assembly.
One senior security officer and a State House aide disclosed that the DSS arrested Yari on Thursday morning and detained him for “thinking the president is a joke,” as one official put it.
“He was asked why he ignored the president’s phone calls during the Senate leadership battle,” an official said.
“He started arguing that he has every right to contest for the position and decisions about his political career moves should not come from the president.
“The president was trying to appeal to him to stand down his ambition to make sure any fate similar to how Bukola Saraki became Senate President in 2015 won’t be repeated.
“We all knew that Saraki’s emergence back then was the first error President Buhari made, and it crippled his first four years in office,” the official allegedly told Gazette.