A student of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN),
Abdulmalik Sa’idu, has been languishing in a police cell for over 20
days on the orders of the Governor of Katsina State, Ibrahim Shema, for
posting details of an alleged fertilizer scam in the state on his
Facebook timeline.
This was disclosed by Mr. Sa’idu’s
family and lawyer who said that Abdulmalik was first invited to the
Katsina Government House on August 28 by a phone caller who claimed he
had a message for him.
But when Abdulmalik arrived at the
governor’s office, he was promptly arrested, handcuffed and taken to
Batagarawa Police Station just outside the state capital, Katsina, and
detained on the orders of Mr. Shema’s aide-de-camp, Shehu Koko, a Deputy
Superintendent of Police, DSP.
According to his father, Maiyawo Sa’idu,
while the young student was not charged with any offence, he was
accused of cloning the governor’s phone number and using same to call
the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affair, Sani
Makana, with instructions that Mr. Makana deposit N3 million in his
account.
Mr. Sa’idu said his son was innocent. He
said if indeed Abdulmalik cloned the governor’s number to dupe a
commissioner he wouldn’t be tricked to come to the Government House to
be arrested.
“I think they are trying to frame him. I
know my son cannot clone the governor’s number and call a commissioner
to put three million into his account,” Mr. Saidu told PREMIUM TIMES.
He said Abdulmalik was arrested because he posted details of an alleged fertiliser scam by the governor on his Facebook page.
Mr. Saidu said prior to his son’s
illegal detention, some officials of the state government had warned his
son to desist from criticising the governor on Facebook.
On one occasion, the General Manager of
Katsina State Road Maintenance Agency, Jamilu Umar, threatened to pay N2
million to thugs or policemen to kill Abdulmalik if he doesn’t stop
criticising the governor publicly, Mr. Saidu said.
Governor Shema’s Chief Press Secretary,
Sani Malumfashi, rejected repeated calls made to his mobile phone after
this reporter told him he was calling about Abdumalik’s case.
The Saidus’ case comes days after global
rights group, Amnesty International, released a damning report accusing
the Nigerian police of arbitrarily arresting, torturing and killing
thousands of Nigerians without following legal process.
The report accused the police of running “torture chambers” where detainees are abused for money or for confessions.
The police dismissed the allegations as
“falsehoods and innuendos” saying the Force does not tolerate torture
and that where it occurs, officials responsible are sanctioned.
But Abdulmalik’s arrest points to how
widespread arbitrary arrests have remained even for the flimsiest of
reasons. Many such arrests are effected on the directives of senior
state officials, including governors.
In November 2012, a civil servant in
Bauchi State, who questioned the financial integrity of the governor,
Isa Yuguda, was immediately dismissed on direct orders of the governor.
In a Facebook post, Abbas Faggo had
accused Mr. Yuguda of corruption, questioning the source of funding of
the governor’s son’s wedding which took place then.
Mr. Faggo was first suspended, and later
arrested by the police. He was eventually arraigned before the Chief
Magistrate of the state for the same offence. The judge, Adamu Madaki,
struck out the case because “it was not properly filed.”
A letter terminating Mr. Faggo’s
appointment, signed by one Ibrahim Shehu for the Head of Service of the
State, said his services were no longer needed.
Barely a year after the Bauchi case, the
Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, ordered the arrest of a
businessman, Tonye Okio, for also criticising him on Facebook.
Mr. Okio, who was also a former Abuja
Liaison officer for Bayelsa State, was arrested on October 26 at his
Abuja residence. He was subsequently blindfolded and driven to Bayelsa
by the Special Investigation Bureau, SIB.
The police also stripped Mr. Okio of his mobile gadgets and all postings on his Facebook account about Mr. Dickson were deleted.
Two days after his arrest, the Bayelsa
police released a statement that Mr. Okio was arrested for “seditious
publications against the Bayelsa governor”.
“This is to inform the general public
and the good people of Bayelsa State in particular that the Bayelsa
police command has succeeded in apprehending one Tonye Okio ‘M’ of
Otiokpoti, Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State for the offence of
seditious publications,” the police said in a statement.
“The suspects
whose syndicate members are now at large will be appropriately arraigned
in court when investigation is complete.”
Police detained Mr. Okio for 10 days
without trial before his lawyer filed a case at a Bayelsa High Court
demanding his fundamental rights be enforce and that he be charged to
court if he has indeed done anything wrong.
A day before the case was to be heard,
the police charged Mr. Okio before a Magistrate Court for defamatory
publication against the Bayelsa governor. After taking his plea, the
Magistrate Court adjourned the case to November 21 for trial.
Mr. Okio was eventually released after spending 86 days behind bars.
In Katsina, Mr. Sa’idu said he is
worried about the wellbeing of his son after relatives were abruptly
stopped from seeing him a week into his being detained.
“For the first week they used to bring
him out to me. He would eat in front of me and they would take him back
to the cell but for more than 12 days now, we have not seen him. They
told me that they have a directive from above not to bring him to me,”
he said. “The DPO (Divisional Police Officer) told me they have a
directive from the Government House not to bring him out for his family
or anybody in Katsina to see him.”
Akin Ajayi, a Kaduna based lawyer, who
is helping the family on the case, said the DPO of Batagarawa Police
Station told him he had order from above not to release Abdulmalik on
bail.
“I spoke to the DPO of the Batagarawa
Police Station and he said he cannot do anything because it was an order
from above,” he said.
Mr. Ajayi said as a lawyer, the governor
should realise that he was breaking the law by holding the boy beyond
48 hours on a “frivolous claim.”
“The governor is a lawyer, his deputy is
a lawyer and the attorney general is a lawyer and they all know that it
is wrongful of them to arrest someone and keep him in detention for
more than 48 hours on a frivolous claim that the boy cloned the
governor’s number and wanted to collect N3 million and some other
concocted allegations which are not proven.
And they now kept the boy incommunicado.
His family cannot reach him, and these days because of the security
situation in the north, he could be killed,” he added.
Mr. Ajayi warned that if Abdulmalik was
not released he was going to send a petition to the National Human
Rights Commission and the Inspector General of Police.
The DPO of Batagarawa declined to talk
to PREMIUM TIMES after he was asked on whose orders Abdulmalik was being
held beyond the 48 hours stipulated by law.
The Police PRO, Abubakar Sadiq, also refused to return several calls after promising to find out the details of the case.
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