According to Peoples Gazette, Yari was arrested after several phone calls to his lines from President Bola Tinubu rang through last month following the Senate President of the National Assembly battle.

According to one senior security officer and a State House aide, the DSS detained Yari on Thursday morning for “thinking the president is a joke,” as one official put it.

“He was asked why he ignored the president’s phone calls during the Senate leadership battle,” an official said.

“He started arguing that he has every right to contest for the position and decisions about his political career moves should not come from the president.

“The president was trying to appeal to him to stand down his ambition to make sure any fate similar to how Bukola Saraki became Senate President in 2015 won’t be repeated.

“We all knew that Saraki’s emergence back then was the first error President Buhari made, and it crippled his first four years in office,” the official allegedly told Gazette.

According to sources, Yari was summoned to the DSS headquarters by DSS Director-General Yusuf Bichi for an urgent  discussion.

When the former governor arrived, he was told to wait for Bichi, who purportedly went out.

However, the senator was held up all day by a phalanx of armed agents, only to be notified at about 10:00 p.m. Thursday that he would not be returning home.

As a result, Yari’s scheduled visit to former President Ibrahim Babangida with other Senate colleagues on Friday was canceled.

“His phones were confiscated, and he may be spending days, if not weeks, in custody,” the source added.

Yari was also questioned about transactions he received from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which investigators are investigating but which the senator apparently explained were legitimate.

“He told them the money from the CBN was from consultancy he did for the forum of governors and he still has an outstanding balance to collect from the CBN,” a source said.