DSS reacts to allegation it arrested Yari for failing to take Tinubu’s phone call 

 

 

By Joseph Ibrahim 

 

The Department of State Services (DSS) has denied the allegation that it arrested the former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, for refusing to pick the phone call of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. 

 

The DSS arrested Yari on Thursday and later released him without stating why the lawmaker was arrested. 

 

Yari contested the Senate Presidency against Godswill Akpabio, the preferred choice of Tinubu.

 

 It is alleged that Yari’s insistence to vie for the Senate Presidency, pitted him against the presidency. 

 

 

 

But the  DSS, in a statement published on its Twitter handle, claimed the allegations against it were wrong and a plot by a section of the media to tarnish its image. 

 

The statement reads in part. 

 

“The attention of the Department of State Services (DSS) has been drawn to false reports by sections of the online media particularly SaharaReporters, Peoples Gazette and Jackson Ude. The so called news platforms variously and wrongly fed the public with misleading narratives and accusations against the Service. 

 

“For instance, SaharaReporters wrote that the Service stormed the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and carted away certain files from them. 

 

“Jackson Ude falsely claimed that there is a rumble in the DSS due to nepotism. He further accused the Service of snooping on Judges on the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

 

“On its part, Peoples Gazette reported that Senator Abdulaziz Yari was arrested for alleged refusal to pick the President’s phone call (whatever that meant). There are other variants of unsubstantiated and anonymous petitions flying around against the DGSS, his family and some officials. 

 

“The Service ordinarily would not have responded to these inaccuracies but for the fickle minded and vulnerable persons as well as the unsuspecting public that may take the lies for facts.

 

“To set the records straight, the DSS did not execute operations of any kind at the ICPC and CCB or remove files from their offices. Instructively, the two agencies have, on their own, refuted the news in widely circulated press statements.

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