The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Sokoto State chapter has condemned the arrest of Shafi’u Tureta, a Special Assistant on Media to Senator Aminu Tambuwal, by policemen on Sunday.

The party in a statement made available to journalists by its spokesperson, Hassan Sanyinnawal, alleged that Tureta’s arrest was on the order of Governor Ahmed Aliyu.

According to the PDP, Tureta was arrested for sharing a viral video clip of the governor struggling to make a statement in English Language and another equally viral clip of cash spray at the governor’s wife’s birthday party.

The statement read, “We, first of all, wish to draw the attention of the governor to the fact that the visuals in question must have been recorded by cameramen attached to his own office or his family and initially leaked to the public by the same personnel.

“It is also not a crime under Nigerian law to make public, videos of the governor’s public engagements or events attended by his family, however embarrassing they may be.

“It is, therefore, the governor’s task or that of his aides to ensure that such materials do not get to the public arena”.

It added, “PDP wishes to caution the Sokoto State Government of its fast worsening human rights record, occasioned by its notoriety for harassment and assault on dissenting opinion.

“We hereby, counsel the governor to turn his energy towards improving on the dismal performance of his regime, rather than the desperate struggle to stifle freedom of expression in the state

“The PDP demands the immediate, unconditional release of Shafi’u Umar Tureta and a final stop to the brutality meted by the Sokoto State Government on citizens for simply exercising their constitutional right to criticising bad governance and unbecoming conduct by those in power in the state”

Meanwhile, efforts to get the reaction of Sokoto Police Command on the reasons behind the alleged arrest were not successful as the spokesman for the command, ASP Ahmed Rufai, could not be reached at the time of filing this report.