…accuses DSS of ‘visiting terrorism’ on detained bandits’ negotiator
Popular Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, on Saturday, accused the Department of State Services of visiting terrorism and violence on the detained bandits’negotiator, Tukur Mamu.
He called on the DSS
to either set Mamu and family members detained along with him free or charge him to court.
Gumi, who cited the law, said anybody arrested over an alleged crime must be charged to court within 24 hours.
Mamu, who negotiated the release of some of the victims of the Kaduna -Abuja train attack, was arrested last week at the Cairo International Airport on his way to Saudi Arabia for Lesser Hajj.
He was repatriated back to Nigeria alongside his family members, but arrested again on arrival at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, by DSS operatives who immediately whisked them away to Abuja and detained them.
DSS later said in a statement that Mamu had some questions to answer on the rising insecurity in the country.
But Gumi, during his weekly preaching at the Sultan Bello Mosque, said Mamu was arrested for assisting victims of terrorist attacks.
The Islamic cleric, who pointed out that God has a way of testing a believer, added that Mamu’s arrest was God’s way of testing his faith, praying that he would overcome his current travails.
Gumi said, “Take him to court to face trial, keeping him in custody despite being a family man was just to intimidate him. This intimidation is also terrorism. Arresting people unjustly is also terrorism; just like the terrorists do by going to somebody’s house to kidnap him.
“How can we continue in this situation under a government that is about to wind up? Our hope is for them to finish successfully not in a bad light. It’s not about Tukur Mamu, you all know that whenever they arrest innocent people, I always talk, not to talk of someone that I know and I’m only advising the government to release him so that we can apologize to him to forget what happened.”