YARI WAS NOT INVITED FOR ALLEGEDLY IGNORING TINUBU'S PHONE CALLS, SAYS DSS.(PHOTO).

Yari was not invited for allegedly ignoring Tinubu’s phone calls, says DSS

The Department of State Services (DSS) says Abdulaziz Yari, senator representing Zamfara west, was not invited over alleged refusal to respond to telephone calls from President Bola Tinubu.

Recently, a report alleged that Yari was arrested and detained by the DSS over the claim that he shunned Tinubu’s telephone calls in June.

The report also claimed that the telephone call was initiated by the president to pressure the former Zamfara governor to drop his ambition to become the senate president.

However, in a statement on Sunday, Peter Afunanya, the DSS spokesperson, said Yari knows why he was invited by the secret police, adding that the online report about the former governor’s arrest is “laughable and petty”.

Afunanya also denied the report that DSS operatives “carted away” all incriminating files relating to Tinubu and his close aides from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

“To set the records straight, the DSS did not execute operations of any kind at the ICPC and CCB or remove files from their offices,” the statement reads.

“Instructively, the two agencies have, on their own, refuted the news in widely circulated press statements.

“It is petty, if not laughable, to report that Yari was invited for refusing to pick the president’s call. This is the height of junk journalism. Yari knows why he was invited.

“In fact, the service denies all the allegations as they lack any factual basis or credibility. They are only figments of the creators’ imaginations.

‘This is more so that the publishers in question have been noted in and outside the country for their notoriety for peddling fake news, sensational and gutter journalism. Without a modicum of proper and civilised behaviour, they indulge in character assassinations and sundry blackmail as a business.”