The Department of State Services, DSS, reportedly detained Alh. Aminu Yaro Dogara, the Sarkin Hausawa of Lagos State and Chairman of Council Arewa Chiefs in Southern Nigeria, for a “connection to the ongoing investigation of the suspended CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele,” according to the Concerned Northern Forum (CNF).
In a statement, Mohammed Danlami, the chairman of the CNF Board of Trustees, said: “We demand Alhaji Aminu Yaro Dogara’s immediate and unconditional release since the law is clear: bring the case to court rather than continuing to hold a person without charge or justification. Additionally, it is cruel to detain and arrest an elderly guy with health issues and keep him separated from his family.
With 2027 just around the corner, he urged President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be cautious of banana peels and refrain from biting the hands that are feeding him.
It was God’s will for him to be called from retirement to occupy the seat, and just as the Nigerian Customs Service has been returned to serving officers in the case of DSS, he cautioned the Director-General of the DSS to know that no amount of disrespecting Arewa tradition would make him stay longer than God’s appointed time on the seat he never dreamed of occupying.
The chairman also urged Arewa-descent traditional leaders to rise up and defend one of their own, emphasizing that his detention was an assault and a plot against the Northern traditional institution.
The country is already divided along ethnic lines and by regional segregation, he observed, so arresting this significant traditional figure will simply make matters worse and add to the list of issues already present.
The statement claims that the group views Dogara’s arrest as a betrayal of Arewa tradition and a last-ditch effort to humiliate their leaders, which if left unchallenged will breed internal colonialism by a man they willingly and gladly voted for despite being challenged morally, historically, and in terms of integrity. It was emphasized that they did this to preserve the nation’s unity and that their love of unity should not be misinterpreted as a sign of weakness.
“The arrest of Sarki’s wife is a brutality to the sacred Arewa culture, an innocent woman without any adverse public incident,” the statement said. On the other side, the DG’s wife made a bad public impression after an incident at the airport with Engineer Abba Kabir, who is now the governor of Kano State. The DG should examine herself and take the necessary action if any women need to be arrested.