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The Kaduna State chapter of the Congress for Progressive Change on Monday claimed that it had secured bail for no fewer than 600 suspects arrested and charged to court by the police in connection with the April post presidential election violence in some northern states

The CPC also said efforts were still being made by the party to ensure the release of the others still in detention over the violence.

The party further stated that those suspects, whose release had been secured, were not all CPC members as several others were also saved by the party from further detention on compassionate grounds and in the spirit of oneness.

The Kaduna State CPC Chairman, Alhaji Ahmadu Yaro, who disclosed this in Kaduna, at a press conference, however, denied allegations that members of his party were responsible for the post-election violence in the northern states.

Rather, Yaro argued that the blame should be placed on the doorsteps of aspirants in the Peoples Democratic Party, who were aggrieved over their loss at the party's primaries.

Yaro claimed that the violence was erroneously being attributed to the loss of the CPC, adding that the police arrested people all over the state in connection with the violence and not because they had any connection with the party.

He said although most of those arrested shortly after the post-election violence were mainly CPC members, "their arrest was done in error while the allegations against them are false and baseless."

Yaro added, "It was PDP members who were fighting one another as a result of the fallout of the primaries. It was the crisis within PDP that caused the crisis; many of their members were not happy, that was why they started the crisis. It was not CPC.

"They want to blackmail CPC; that was why they said it was CPC that started the violent protest. They saw that CPC was about taking over the government and they didn't want the CPC to win. For instance, there has never been an election in Nigeria where Army or Police attacked people like the recent elections. So that's why they moved the military against the party because they didn't want CPC to win."