Whew! Katsina Gov., Shema, orders student detained indefinitely for criticising him on Facebook

A student of the National Open University
of Nigeria, 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 fertiliser scam in the state on
his Facebook timeline.
This was disclosed to PREMIUM TIMES by
Mr. Sa’idu’s family and lawyer.
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.
Katsina family denied access to
Abdulmalik
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.