Shafi’u Umar Tureta, an aide to Aminu Tambuwal, a senator, has been remanded in a correctional facility for allegedly insulting Ahmad Aliyu, governor of Sokoto, on Facebook.
Tureta was charged before a magistrate in Sokoto on Monday.
According to Premium Times, Fatima Hassan, the magistrate, barred journalists from covering the proceedings.
The police’s first information report (FIR) shows that the government charged Tureta with circulating injurious falsehood and engraving matter known to be defamatory, which was said to have contravened the Penal Code.
The aide was said to have committed the offences in July.
Tureta was also accused of sharing a document that purportedly showed that Aliyu scored F9 in English Language in the senior school certificate examination (SSCE).
The aide was also said to have posted a video showing the spraying of dollar notes during the birthday celebration of Fatima, the governor’s wife.
Tureta was also accused of sharing videos to mock the governor for not “being fluent in English”.
Tureta is the special assistant on local and digital media to Tambuwal.
Tambuwal served as governor of Sokoto from 2015 to 2023. The former governor is currently a senator representing Sokoto south.
Armed security operatives reportedly invaded Tureta’s residence on Sunday to effect the arrest.
In a statement on Monday, Amnesty International Nigeria called for the “unconditional release” of the aide, adding that the arrest is “unacceptable”.
The human rights organisation said the Sokoto government intends to remand Tureta on “bogus” charges.
“This surge in human rights violations by the Sokoto state government is unacceptable and must end now,” Amnesty said.
“Instead of targeting critical voices, the government of Sokoto state must prioritise addressing poverty, out-of-school children littering the streets of Sokoto and ending rampant insecurity that had left eastern part of the state at the mercy of gunmen, with hundreds killed in Isa and Sabon Birnin LGA and thousands displaced.”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Sokoto also condemned Tureta’s arrest, adding that it is not a crime to post public videos of a governor.
“We, first of all, wish to draw the attention of the Governor to the fact that the visuals in question must have been recorded by camera men attached to his own office or his family and initially leaked to the public by the same personnel,” Hassan Sahabi Sanyinnawal, Sokoto PDP spokesperson, said.
“It is also not a crime under Nigerian law to make public, videos of the Governor’s public engagements or of events attended by his family, however embarrassing they may be.
“It is therefore, his task or that of his aides to ensure that such materials do not get to the public arena.
“The PDP wishes to caution the Sokoto State Government of its fast worsening human rights record, occasioned by its notoriety for harassment and assault on dissenting opinion.
“We hereby, counsel Ahmed Aliyu to turn his energy towards improving on the dismal performance of his regime, rather than the desperate struggle to stifle freedom of expression in the state.”
