Police quiz Yerima over comments

Former governor of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, was, on Saturday, in Kaduna, quizzed by the state police command shortly after featuring on Hannu Dayawa, a phone-in programe of the Radio Nigeria, Kaduna.
The senator was reportedly picked up by the state’s commissioner of police at the studio of the radio station after the programme, after he made comments on sensitive issues about the state of the nation, the opposition in Nigerian politics and the merger which led to the formation of the All Progressive Congress (APC), among others.
Shortly after the police commissioner met and discussed with Senator Yerima, the senator reportedly told his well-wishers that the police came to pick him up, following an order from Abuja but was not categorical about which quarter the order came from.
It was learnt that during the programme, a caller had told Yerima that there were moves to ensure that the APC would not be registered and sought to know what would be their reaction if the proposed party could not get registered.
Yerima, who had earlier spoken on steps being taken to ensure that the APC was registered, said if the authorities denied the party registration, they would mobilise and converge on a square in  Abuja and would not leave until the party is registered, similar to what happened at the Egypt’s Tahrir Square during the Arab uprising.
However, the senator was released after being interrogated by the police for about three hours. His supporters had mobilised themselves to the police headquarters but were denied entry.
The state’s police commissioner, Olufemi Adenaike, told newsmen that the senator, who is also one of the coordinators of the APC, was not arrested per se, noting that Yerima was merely invited to explain the statement he made at the radio station.
The commissioner said that he was inundated with calls from concerned citizens of the state on the inciting statement made by the former governor.
“All I did was to go to the radio house and I met the distinguished senator and I said, please, I want to know what you said. He said, no problem, let me finish. And I will come with you to the office. This is what  transpired.”
The police boss added; “Let me start by saying that I am seriously disappointed by the action of journalists, in the sense that you are blowing nothing out of proportion.
“If you put yourself in my shoes, you are the commissioner of police of a state and you start getting calls from concerned citizens of the state that somebody has made an inciting statement on the radio, will you go to burukutu  joint and start drinking? You have to make a move.
“All we did was to find out what he said. And he said they were going to go on a peaceful demonstration. And I said, define what you mean by peaceful demonstration, considering that Kaduna State is a volatile state. I don’t want anything to happen in my domain. I’m completely satisfied with what he has said. And he is free to go. There was no directive from anywhere. We were doing things on our own.”
It was learnt that the former governor was made to write a statement on what he said during the radio programme at the police headquarters.
Tribune