The Katsina State Elders’ Forum has demanded the immediate and unconditional release of a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Usman Yusuf.
As far as the forum is concerned, the embattled former NHIS boss has not done anything wrong in exercising his constitutional right of freedom of speech by granting interviews and telling Nigerians the truth and true position.
Speaking in a briefing on Tuesday in reaction to Usman’s arrest and continuous detention, the secretary of the forum, Aliyu Muhammad, demanded more explanation from President Bola Tinubu.
“Professor Usman Yusuf is a professor of hematology and a specialist in bone marrow transplantation. This man was working in America, earning a handsome salary. The Federal Government of Nigeria went and lobbied him to come back home and assist. He was given a position to head the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and he was the Executive Secretary for some time. He met a lot of mess and he wanted to put things right and was kicked out,” the forum said in a briefing in Katsina.
“For this present government, there are people against Usman because of the way he was offering interviews. The Americans still need him, and all over the world, he is needed. We don’t have his type in Nigeria.”
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He said, “We are reminding Tinubu that all Nigerians are entitled to all rights and should not forget that the northern region gave him five million out of the eight million votes he used to climb into power and those five million have now multiplied because of the situation on ground now has forced every northerner to renew his registration card.”
“I am assuring the president, that all of us are going to vote, we are suffering, he knows that we are suffering and sectionalism is so unfortunate. This one is accused of stealing billions, trillions and nobody is talking about it but because Usman Yusuf has been telling Nigerians the truth and the true position of this, he has been climbed upon and locked up with the EFCC,” the forum claimed.
Earlier in his remarks, the 82-year-old acting Chairman of the Katsina State Elders’ Forum, Mamman Danmusa cautioned President Tinubu of the consequences of the arrest and continuous detention of the former NHIS boss, which he claimed, would not be palatable.
