Dr Usman Bugaje
The Department of State Service (DSS) has held Dr Usman Bugaje for criticising the Buhari administration’s handling of insecurity across the country.
Dr Bugaje, a politician and scholar, was held by state agents after appearing on AIT, Peoples Gazette learnt. He has been at the secret police’s custody since 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, sources said.
Dr Bugaje added his voice to growing concerns amongst Nigerians about insecurity. The politician had previously condemned President Buhari’s failure to tackle the economy, as well as his sectional appointments.
It was not immediately clear when the DSS would release Dr Bugaje. A spokesman for the service did not immediately return a request seeking comments from The Gazette.
Dr Bugaje’s arrest came barely a few weeks after the DSS invited then detained Obadiah Mailafia, a former CBN chief who similarly criticised insecurity and accused politicians of being behind the expanding crisis.
Dr Bugaje, a former House of Reps member and founding Secretary-General of the now-defunct ACN, has been highly critical of the Buhari-led administration’s handling of the Insecurity pervading the country presently.
He was arrested by the DSS during the Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2012, after his critical stance,via an interview, on their handling of the subsidy removal.
Publicity Secretary of the ACN at the time, Lai Mohammed had condemned the arrest:”There is nothing that Dr. Bugaje said in that interview that has not been said many times over by other Nigerians since the government decided to over-reach itself by inflicting avoidable pain on the people in the name of fuel subsidy removal.
”Perhaps Dr. Bugaje’s only sin is that he is a member of the ACN. But our party is not responsible for the unenviable situation in which this rudderless government has found itself. In fact, had the government listened to our wise counsel, it would have avoided the troubles it had now brought on itself,” Lai Mohammed said.
Peoples Gazette
