Barely 15 hours to the presidential election in Nigeria, the country’s the Police has asked the Kaduna State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mallam Nasir El-Rifai, and two others to appear before it for questioning.
Apart from a letter, signed by the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the CID, summoning the trio, including Suleiman Hunkuyi and Lawal Yakawada, the Kaduna State Police Command has followed it up with phone calls demanding that they appear at the Command.
While Hunkuyi is the APC senatorial candidate for Kaduna North and chairman of the APC Kaduna state campaign council, Yakawada, a former Secretary to the State Government under the administration of late Governor Patrick Yakowa, is also part of the APC campaign council.
The Publicity Secretary of the party in Kaduna, Samuel Aruwan, confirmed the summoning, adding that the intention of the police is to keep the trio, being major APC weight, till after the election.
The APC had earlier raised an alarm that it had it on good record that there was a plan to begin a clampdown on its top members.
In Kaduna State for instance, the APC said there was a plot to arrest some of its members in Southern Kaduna and that some of these members include the chairman of the party and gubernatorial running-mate to El-Rufai, Barnabas Yusuf Bala, Mikaiah, retired Vice-Admiral Tokwak, Ishaya Iko, and the Director General of Kaduna APC Campaign Council, Ben Kure.
Members of the party in the state said the trio was being framed on allegations that some people destroyed billboards in Zaria.
But the APC said it was the victim and had constantly reported to the police that billboards and campaign materials of candidates were being destroyed. The Police never made any arrest or took any action.
Rather than appear, however, the party, through its counsel, Associate Professor Yusuf Dankofa, replied the police command, reminding it of a pending case on the issue before a Federal High Court in Kaduna.
The party’s letter reminded the police that arresting its members over the same issue would be subjudice and further translate to a total disregard for justice and a further desecration of the hallowed majesty of our courts.
Dakofa, an Associate Professor of Law, said in the letter: “in view of this fact that the above mentioned people’s application is before the court, the matter has been further adjourned to the 29th of April 2015 for further arguments and with this the court has been seized of this matter.”
