PDP guber candidate sues for peace
John Shiklam in Kaduna
The President of the Adara Development Association (ADA), Awema Dio Maisamari, alongside the treasurer of the association, Joseph Abdallah, have been arrested by the police in Kaduna State.
This is coming as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Hon. Isa Ashiru, has called on the people of the state to shun violence and embrace peace so that the state can make progress.
Former President of ADA, Danladi Yarima, a lawyer, alleged yesterday that Maisamari was arrested on Saturday on the orders of the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai.
Yarima said in an interview in Kaduna that the governor ordered the arrest of Maisamari who attended the Town Hall meeting, which held in Kasuwan Magani between the governor and religious and community leaders over the killings in Kajuru Local Government Area (LGA).
“We were at the Town Hall meeting, which the governor held with community and religious leaders in Kasuwan Magani on Saturday over the killings in villages in Kajuru LGA last week.
“Maisamari wanted to talk at the Town Hall meeting, then the governor said he will not talk. The governor ordered that he should be taken out of the hall and he was taken out by security personnel. From there, he was taken to Kaduna, ” Yarima said.
Yarima who said he later joined Maisamari at the police command, added that the police accused Maisamari of abusing the governor in a press statement issued in December last year.
“They said he abused the governor in a press statement he issued in December 2018 and that the press statement was not an official statement from the ADA.
“The police said he issued the statement in his personal capacity and asked him to produce any executive member of the association who can testify that the press statement was an official statement of the ADA,” Yarima added.
Speaking further he said, Maisamari called Treasurer of the association, Joseph Abdallah, to testify.
He said Abdallah told the police that even though he was not in town when the statement was issued, it reflected resolutions taken at a meeting of the association.
Yarima said the duo were later taken to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), where they were detained after they were asked to write statements.
National Secretary of the association, Luka Godwin, condemned the arrest in a statement issued yesterday.
The statement called for the immediate release of Maisamari and other Adara community leaders which according to the statement, were unjustly arrested. Efforts to reach Samuel Aruwan, spokesman of Governor el-Rufai and Yakubu Sabo, spokesman of the Kaduna State Police command to react to the issue proved abortive as they did not respond to phone calls and text messages.
Meanwhile, the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state, Hon. Isa Ashiru has called on the people of the state to shun violence and embrace peace so that the state can make progress.
He said the diversity which the Almighty God has endowed on the state, should be harnessed for the good of all citizens.
In a statement he issued yesterday on the killings in communities in Kajuru LGA of the state, Ashiru described the incident as callousness and a descent to barbarism.
“Our state is big, bountiful and rich enough to accommodate all of us; all we need to do is to continuously remind ourselves of the fact that resort to violence has never benefitted us as a people,” he said.
According to him, any form of violence diminishes “us as a people” and urged the people to come together, regardless of political, religious or ethnic differences.
“Let us make the world know that we are committed to ridding our state of violence and at the same time willing to live as the true brothers and sisters that we have always been” he said.
While commiserating with families of those killed in the incident and the wounded, he said his desire to be governor of the state is driven by his concern for the people and the determination to rescue the state from misrule.
