SSS arrests Ciroma’s men

The Department of State Security Services (SSS) has arrested Secretary of the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF), Mallam Bello Abdulkadir.

It was gathered that operatives of the SSS accosted the NPLF secretary in Abuja on Wednesday morning, insisting he was wanted for questioning over an undisclosed security breach. But Abdulkadir insisted on being accompanied by a lawyer, which he quickly arranged.

It was gathered that Abdulkadir was taken to the Yellow House, the headquarters of the SSS in Asokoro, Abuja.

At about 10p.m. on Wednesday when it was clear that Abdulkadir would not be allowed to go home, operatives of the SSS handed over the telephone handsets of the secretary of NPLF to his lawyer who had accompanied him to the SSS office. As at yesterday afternoon lawyers were still trying to file a bail application on behalf of Abdulkadir in line with constitutional provision that a citizen should not be kept in detention for more than 24 hours without being charged to court.

President Jonathan early last month met with the NPLF led by Alhaji Adamu Ciroma at the Abuja residence of the former minister of finance signalling the beginning of a rapprochement between the leaders of the group and the president.
But Daily Sun gathered that with the arrest the SSS may have thrown a spanner in the works of the much-anticipated working alliance between Jonathan and the Ciroma group.
It was being insinuated that the arrest had a political undertone as it came 24 hours before a meeting of the NPLF to take final decision on whether to support President Goodluck Jonathan in the April election.
Meanwhile, the SSS also picked up another secretariat staff of the NPLF, Faruk Bibi Faruk yesterday afternoon.

It was also not immediately clear why Fauk who was the immediate past national youth leader and member of the national working committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was arrested. However, a top official of SSS last night dismissed the insinuation of political undertone in the arrests as flawed.

The SSS official said the arrest of Abdulkadir had nothing to do with the NPLF or the Northern consensus presidential aspirant promoted by the group, Atiku Abubakar. According to him, the arrest was in relation to the NPLF scribe and a statement which infringed on national security.

He said Abdulkadir was questioned and he absolved himself of the act. The SSS official said the NPLF scribe had been let off the hook, while the security agency had invited other persons believed to be connected to the security breach.