Five leaders of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria have been arrested over alleged involvement in last week's anti-petrol subsidy removal protests in Minna, Niger State, in which many buildings were burnt.
The ACN chiefs are former members of the ruling People's Democratic Party, who defected in the run up to previous elections.
They are former secretary to the state government Adams Erena, former PDP national vice chairman for North-central Abubakar Magaji, former Water Resources commissioner Idris Azozo, former Health commissioner Dattijo Aliyu, and former senior special assistant to the governor on mobilization Mike Barde.
The former commissioners served during the tenure of then Governor Abdulkadir Kure, while Barde served during the first term of Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu.
Police invited the ACN chieftains to the state command headquarters on Tuesday evening for interrogation over allegedly sponsoring miscreants to hijack last Wednesday's anti-fuel subsidy removal protest, which led to destruction of property mostly belonging to PDP stalwarts.
Since then, the suspects were in detention.
One of them, Dattijo Aliyu, told Daily Trust yesterday at the police command where they were being detained that their arrest was politically motivated because they were the perceived enemies of the government.
"Our names were forwarded to the police from the office of the state governor and equally ordered for our arrest," he said.
But Governor Aliyu denied being behind the arrests. He said yesterday when he received visiting state executive of the PDP that he did not order the arrest of any person, and that the security agencies were only carrying out their duties.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, ASP Richard Oguche, said the five suspects were arrested over an allegation in a petition that they sponsored the violence in Minna last week.
The ACN, through its National Secretary Lawal Shuaibu, yesterday condemned the arrests of the party leaders and demanded their immediate release. Shuaibu spoke after the meeting of the party's national executive in Abuja.
Last Thursday, further violence occurred in the Niger State as two people were reported to have been killed by the police in Lambata town of Gawu Babangida Local Government Area during a fuel subsidy rally.
DailyTrust