[News] Gombe government defends detention of critic

Gombe State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Zubairu Umar has defended the detention of Mohammed Yayari, an aide to Senator Danjuma Goje.

 

Yayari was detained over claim of top party chieftains leaving the All Progressives Congress in droves.

 

Reacting to Yayari’s lawyers’ allegation of Chief Magistrate, Mohammed Kumo, decrying pressure from ‘the powers that be’ in his ruling and also saying that he was coerced to deny the defendant bail,  Umar stated that use of state agents enhances the political standing of any government.

 

He said;

 

“It is natural. In democracy when you are in control you can use the machinery of government to enhance your political standing. Every project that has been sited anywhere there is politics behind it, there must be a reason.

“It is either because you want to compensate those who supported you or entice those who have not supported you and this purely a political administration, anything the government does it weighs how the consequences will impact the performance of the government.

“Has anybody said anything that the government did, he (chief magistrate Kumo) mentioned that somebody mounted pressure on him. He didn’t say the governor or the state government.”