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ABDUCTION AND DETENTION BY THE EFCC AND INCARCERATION IN KUJE PRISON WILL NEVER SILENCE ME

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  CapitalTimesNews / 4 months
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• 14 min read

Prof. Yusuf Writes from detention Prof. Usman Yusuf 12 February 2025 Big Brother Is WatchingI have felt the haunting presence of the state stalking me since I started publicly criticising the policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government that have been inflicting unbearable hardships on Nigerians. I know it to be true that security agents have been physically and electronically tracking my family and I on the orders of this government. The Trigger: Northern Youths Summit in BauchiOn Saturday, 25 January 2025, I was invited to Bauchi to chair the maiden summit of Tafiyar Matasan Arewa, a Northern Youth Movement with branches in all 19 Northern states. The summit theme was the role of youths in nation-building. Most speakers spoke in Hausa, but I communicated in both Hausa and English to reach a wider audience. I called on the youths to wake up and take their destinies in their hands because nations are built by the youths, not the aged. I spoke on the following 10 points: Finally, I called upon Northern youths to remain united, shun all acts of violence and criminality, engage positively in the political process, and resist any person or group trying to use religion or ethnicity to divide the people of the region. The event received very wide press coverage. In the evening after the event when I returned to my hotel accommodation, I noticed some strange people in the lobby, hallway, and restaurant that I immediately knew were security agents stalking me. Abduction and detention for 6 days at the EFCC: From Wed. 29 Jan. to Mon. 3 Feb. 2025On Wednesday, 29 January 2025, at around 6:30pm, as I was preparing to break my fast, my wife came upstairs to inform me that two gentlemen in black suits knocked at the door and came inside the house, saying I knew they were coming. I came downstairs in my Jallabiyya (robe), no cap, with bathroom slippers to meet these gentlemen who introduced themselves as operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) directed to take me to their headquarters. I asked them for their badges, which they showed me with an apology for the oversight. I asked for an arrest warrant, and they told me that they did not need one. I also asked why I was not sent any formal invitation letter before this intrusive visit. I then asked to be allowed to go upstairs to change but was physically blocked by these operatives. I also asked for my wife to be allowed to go upstairs and bring me a change of clothing, but they refused to allow that. On stepping outside the house, there were 5 armed mobile policemen, some deployed to the back of my house, presumably to prevent me from escaping through the back door or window. The engine of the bus they came in was left running with the driver sitting inside. In the heat of argument, my wife got into a shouting match with the lead operative, which made her say a few unpleasant words that provoked him and the rest of his team. My 14-year-old daughter was understandably very shaken by this act of state terror. I shouted out some words of consolation to her because I was blocked from going close to hug and talk to her. I asked my wife to call my brothers and Lawyers to let them know. The lead operative angrily seized my phone from my hand and literally bundled me onto the bus, seating me between him and an armed mobile policeman. The driver then zoomed off, driving crazily, sometimes against the flow of traffic to the EFCC headquarters. All the dark-suited operatives and the five armed mobile policemen in the bus were gleefully high-fiving themselves as if they had captured Kachalla Bello Turji, the notorious Zamfara bandit kingpin. Let us be clear, the main purpose of these cowardly Gestapo tactics by the EFCC was to use the instrument of state to intimidate and terrorise my family. As for me, I was not the least impressed or intimidated by this shameful act of state terror. On arriving at the EFCC, the five armed mobile policemen were dismissed with a part on the back for a job well done while I was escorted by the dark-suited operatives upstairs to the office of head of Procurement Fraud Section (PFS) to whom I introduced myself and asked why he sent his operatives to abduct me from my house to his office. He just handed me a bunch of papers, and he said were my charges asking me to sign, which I did after some back and forth. I asked him for a bottle of water to break my fast, which he obliged, and to be allowed to call my wife. Unfortunately, my phone battery had run down. I was refused a phone call to tell my wife and daughter where and how I was. After signing and collecting a copy of the charges against me, the boss PFS who seemed in a rush to close for the day, asked his assistant to take his bag downstairs to his car as if I was the last item on his to-do list for the day. No one told me why I was abducted, whether or not I was going to be detained, when I would be allowed access to my family and Lawyers, or when I would be arraigned in court to answer the charges labelled against me. I was then taken on foot around the main building to the detention cells. After being processed, I asked to be allowed to say my evening prayers (Maghrib and Isha), after which I was taken to my cell, which I shared with three other detainees. Many of the detainees, especially the youths, recognised me and came over to greet and offer their prayers and best wishes. My three cellmates accorded me all the courtesy and respect befitting my grey hairs. They gave me a sachet of pure