By Ayo Kehinde
On Tuesday, the former Minister of Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung, paid a visit to Prof Usman Yusuf at the Kuje Custodial Centre in Abuja.
Yusuf, a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), was remanded on Monday in the Correctional facility pending the hearing of his bail application after he pleaded “not guilty” to a five-count amended charge bordering on alleged fraud.
Arrested last Wednesday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Yusuf is accused of using his office to confer undue advantages to himself between 2016 and 2017.
Speaking in a post on his Facebook page on Wednesday, Dalung accused the Federal Government, led by President Bola Tinubu, of ‘civilian dictatorship’.
He decried an alleged seven-day ultimatum by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, to a social activist and politician, Hajia Naja’atu Mohammed, over a TikTok video that dubbed President Tinubu a corrupt politician.
The post reads, “On the 4th February, myself and Comrade Mahdi Shehu visited Comrade Professor Usman Yusuf at the Kuje Correctional facility Abuja. He was arrested by men of EFCC, arraigned before FCT High Court Kuje and remanded on charges of corruption.
“We met him in good health and high spirit. He was even more concerned about the situation in the country than even his detention. His character strength was not only consoling but it also strengthened the struggle for good governance. I also used the opportunity to inspect our potential accommodation in view of the current crackdown on voices of dissent. No amount of intimidation and state harassment can deter us.
“With the current threats to our defiant Comrade Na’ajaratu Mohammed by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Tinubu’s NSA, the battle line is drawn for the defence of freedom.
“This is a clarion call to the struggling community to buckle up for the challenges of civilian dictatorship. We must rally round the #freeprofusman struggle by availing yourselves to all court sessions if you can afford. We shall return to the streets if justice remains elusive. An injury to one is an injury to all, therefore, we are all prisoners of conscience only waiting to be picked. However, we are resolute in our conviction that every struggle has a price and a new Nigeria is attainable.”
