By: John Bassey, Zamfara.

The Zamfara State Government has expressed serious concern about the harassment of opposition figures within the state using federal might, leading to arrest of Saleem Abubakar, a Technical Assistant in the Office of the Zamfara State Governor, describing it as abduction in Abuja.

The All Progressives Congress APC on the other hand debunked the alleged abduction in a press statement by Comrade Yusuf Idris Gusau the state APC publicity secretary as false and misleading testifying that the arrest of the suspect was linked to terrorism and cyber crime which are serious offences in the security structure of the country.

According to the statement earlier released by the spokesperson to Governor Dauda Lawal, Comrade Suleiman Bala Idris, it read, Zamfara State Government was left with no other option but to bring to public notice how the Minister of State for Defence used the office of the National Security Adviser to harass and intimidate the opposition.

We received a shocking and distressing message that Saleem Abubakar, a Technical Assistant in the Office of the Zamfara State Governor, was abducted in Abuja on Monday.

The illegal abduction was said to be carried out by a special forces unit from the office of the National Security Adviser.

The most unfortunate and worrying part of the abduction of Saleem Abubakar is that it was syndicated through the office of the NSA by the State Minister for Defence, Bello Matawalle.

The abductors, without an arrest warrant, took Saleem to an unknown location, which when we later found out, they moved him to different facilities to cover their tracks.

This is a perilous precedent that all Nigerians must strongly condemn. No amount of desperation is worth compromising the neutrality of the security.

We cannot afford to fold our arms and watch the highest security office of the country being used as a tool of political persecution.

We call on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to call the office of the National Security Adviser to order. Such reckless actions are detrimental to Nigeria’s reputation.

If the Defence Minister or the abductors of Saleem Abubakar from the National Security Adviser’s office have any problem with him, they should charge him in court instead of abducting him.

We are closely monitoring this case of misused federal impunity and will follow it to a logical conclusion, ensuring that justice is served accordingly.

Meanwhile, Comrade Yusuf Idris Gusau the Spokesperson to Zamfara state APC stated in a counter statement as follows, it will always baffle the Nigerian community that anything that negatively touches the Zamfara State government is immediately and directly linked to the Minister either directly by the governor or by his cronies.

The writer stated that Saleem was arrested by a Special Forces Unit under the office of the National Security Adviser NSA, that alone should have rested the matter or any interested party can go to the NSA’s office to find out on further details leading to the arrest.

The spokesperson however in his ignorance does not know that any arrest coordinated from the office of the NSA borders on serious national security, does not require warrant and will be subjected to investigations but he crookedly and craftily avoided mentioning that the suspect is alleged to have links to terrorism and cyber crime which are serious offences.

The state chapter of the APC has always accused the PDP led government of Zamfara of a standing partnership with bandits some of whom have been arrested by security agents, so for the government to immediately come out in defence and protection of a suspect like Saleem, it further confirms our charges.

We wish to formally and strongly commend the security personnel for the arrest and urge them to seriously investigate him to possibly lead to further arrests which they may be trying to avoid.

As for the Honourable Minister who is currently out of the country on national assignment when the arrest and accusations against him were made, he cannot be distracted by a miniature like the governor’s spokesman and couldn’t have gone so low to ‘syndicate’ the arrest of a technical assistant.

The security agents may however have discovered high profile security threats linked to the arrested person and it’s their duty to unfathom.

The word ‘abduction’ by Suleiman is also careless, implicating, callous and can cause him serious problems, because the security either arrest or invite persons because they have no reason to abduct anymore.

We commend the NSA office and the Ministry of Defence and other security outfits in the coutry for the proactive measures they are taking in the country which in turn will make Nigeria secured and free from any threat from the people of the underworld.