Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Taraba Crisis: Police release Suntai aide on bail, denies working for Ag.Governor


Ayodele Samuel, Lagos
The Senior Special Assistant to Taraba State Governor Danbaba Suntai on Media Matters, Mr. Sylvanus Yakubu Giwa has been released on bail from police custody two days after his arrest.
 Giwa  told our Correspondent yesterday on phone that  he was to go home  early Sunday morning and  report at the state police headquarters on Monday 30th September by 9am.
Giwa was arrested  at about midnight on Friday  following  a statement which he issued accusing the Acting Governor of running a parallel government in spite of the presence of the elected governor on behalf of his principal.
However The Taraba State Governor Danbaba Suntai has said he authorized his Senior Special Adviser Media Matter, Mr. Sylvanus Giwa to issue a statement accusing the Acting Governor, Alhaji Garba Umar of betrayal.  
 A press statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to Taraba Governor, Hassan Mijinyanwa  said "Mr Giwa made the statement in his capacity as the Senior Special Adviser  to the Governor of a Democratic State where freedom of speech as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must be respected."
Mijinyanwa   also debunk information in the media that he was detained by the State police command.

The Nigeria Police Force, Taraba State Command has shed light on the arrest of Chief Silvanus Yakubu Giwa, the Senior Special Assistant to recuperating Governor Danbaba Suntai, last Friday, saying the police action was as a result of an intelligence report that Giwa and his friends were planning to invade the state House of Assembly with the aim of causing chaos.
Speaking during a press conference in his office in Jalingo, the state capital Monday, the command's Commissioner of Police, Mr. Jibril Adeniyi, said Giwa and his friends were arrested at about 11.00pm while holding a meeting on how to invade the Assembly and further create crisis in the state at a hotel on the outskirts of Jalingo.
Adeniyi said that Giwa and his group would soon be arraigned in court, adding that Giwa had since been released on bail and directed to report daily at the Command headquarters while investigation continues before they are charged to court.
Expressing the preparedness of the command to maintain the peace and security of the state, the police commissioner warned those with the intention of fomenting trouble in the state to desist from such plans, saying the command would not hesitate to arrest anybody, no matter how highly placed found to be threatening the peace of the state. 
"We are determined to maintain the existing peace and security of this state. We have been working very hard to sustain peace in Taraba State and we'll not fold our arms and allow anybody to disrupt the existing peace.  We are prepared to arrest anybody, no matter how highly placed that wants to disrupt the peace of the state. We're ready to face the challenge," he said.
Refuting the allegation that he is being used by the acting governor of the state to clamp down on his opponents, the police boss maintained that such insinuations and allegations only exist in the imagination of those making the insinuation, insisting that the peace of the state remains sacrosanct and that the command would not treat any threat to the peace of the state with levity.
He implored politicians to avoid acts that are capable of breaching the peace of the state, adding that the politicians should intensify efforts at resolving the lingering political crisis in the state as well as resolve their differences in the interest of the development of the state.