Kano — Former member of the House of Representatives Alhaji Farouk Adamu Aliyu has been arrested. He was whisked away from his residence on Babura Road in Kano at 3pm yesterday by men of the State Security Service (SSS)and taken to Abuja. Aliyu represented Birnin Kudu/Buji federal constituency in Jigawa State at the lower legislative chamber of the National Assembly between 2003 and 2007.

His wife Hajiya Mairo confirmed Aliyu's arrest. She told Daily Trust that the plain cloth security operatives stormed Aliyu's residence around 3pm in three different vehicles and drove with him to Abuja. But SSS Director for Kano State Alhaji Tukur Bello Bakori declined comment. He however said it was not arrest and he could not explain what it was either.

Sometime in June this year management of Kano-based Freedom Radio suddenly stopped airing the programme Aliyu used to present at the last week of every month. He was paying for the programme.

Sources then said the radio station was directed by National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to stop the programme for what it described as incitement to public disturbance.

Narrating how her husband was arrested, Hajiya Mairo said the security operatives came from Abuja and were led to the residence by some security officers from Kano SSS command. She said they first went to his State Road residence and were told he was at his Babura Road house where they eventually effected his arrest.

When they arrived in the house, she said, they asked his security guard to go and inform him he had some visitors from Abuja. She said when he was informed of the visitors' arrival he immediately directed that they should come inside his living room, where his wife, children and himself were taking rest because of the day's fast.

She said when they were ushered into the living room, she and the children left to allow the former law-maker and his visitors discuss the issue that brought them to the house in the first place.

She said he later dashed into her room to tell her that they were SSS men who came from Abuja to arrest him. Hajiya Mairo said when she asked the offence he committed that warranted his arrest he told her they couldn't say anything beyond the arrest warrant from the SSS headquarters Abuja shown to him. The wife also said when he was shown the arrest warrant he asked if they could allow him go into his bedroom to change his clothes, a request, she said, they granted him. She said she saw in the arrest warrant he was being invited for his inciting utterances.

She said when they all came out of the house, he also requested the security operatives to allow him to go to the other residence to inform other family members of the development. She said they granted the request but they didn't allow him to drive himself to the house as he used to for fear that he would run away.

Commenting on the arrest, Chairman of Buhari Network for Change Alhaji Abdulmajid Danbilki Commander described the development as unfortunate. He also described the arrest as a threat to democracy and therefore vowed not retreat from the fight to ensure the entrenchment of genuine democracy in the country. Commander said Aliyu's arrest would encourage the opposition to further challenge the government for its "unpopular programmes and policies".