Salihu Tanko Yakasai, the sacked media aide to Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, has been released from the custody of the Department of State Services.
A brother to Yakasai, Abdullahi, made this known via his Twitter handle, said “Alhamdulilah. My brother @dawisu is out. Thank you all! #freedawisu,” Abdullahi tweeted.
Many Nigerians on social media had condemned the arrest of Yakasai hours after criticising President Muhammadu Buhari over the rise in school kidnappings.
Yakasai, who was until Saturday afternoon, a media aide to Ganduje was arrested by the Department of State Services on Friday.
Father of the governor’s aide and a founding member of Arewa Consultative Forum and elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, said his son was arrested on his way to a barbing salon in Kano, the state capital.
Though the DSS in Kano State initially denied arresting the younger Yakasai, DSS headquarters in Abuja confirmed that the sacked media aide was in its custody.
The agency’s spokesman, Peter Afunanya, while confirming Salihu’s detention, denied that the former aide’s arrest was connected to his criticism of the Buhari regime.
“This is to confirm that Salihu Tanko-Yakasai is with the Department of State Services. He is being investigated over issues beyond the expression of opinions in the social media as wrongly alleged by sections of the public,” he had said in a statement.