Alleged Defamation: Court remands student for calling Aisha Buhari fat as NANS plans protest
Justice Halilu Yusuf of the Federal Capital Territory High Court has remanded the final year student of the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State, Aminu Adamu Mohammed, who tweeted criticising Aisha Buhari at the Suleja Correctional Centre in Niger State.
The student was arraigned for cyber stalking, where he was denied bail despite pleading not guilty to the charges filed against him.
Adamu, a 500-level student of the Department of Environmental Management and Taxocology, from the aforementioned institution, who was allegedly arrested by security officials on the orders of the First Lady a few days ago, had in June tweeted in Hausa that the President’s wife was feeding fat on poor people’s money.
Justice Halilu ordered the defendant to be remanded in Suleja Prison pending the hearing and determination of his bail application.
The charges against the defendant partly read, “That you Aminu Adamu, male of Anguwar Sarakuna, Bauchi, Bauchi state sometime between May – June 2022 within the jurisdiction of this Honorable court did intentionally open a Twitter Handle with the name @aminullahie and wrote on it in Hausa language ‘Su mama anchi kudi talakawa ankoshi’ roughly translated to the English language to mean ‘mama has embezzled monies meant for the poor to satisfaction’ and posted same on your above Twitter handle for the members of the public to read, knowing same to be false and capable of affecting her reputation. You thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 391 of the penal code.”
The reported arrest of Adamu has sparked up series of reactions from different agencies and also caused a social media storm with thousands of users calling for his release.
Human rights lawyer, Monday Ubani, has also criticised Mrs Aisha Buhari over the incident, saying that many Nigerians flayed Mrs Patience Jonathan during her husband’s tenure as Nigeria’s President from 2010 to 2015 but she didn’t arrest any of her detractors.
Ubani, who is the Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL) spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday.
He urged public officeholders and their spouses to be tolerant because people will always criticise them and their actions.
“The former President’s wife, Mrs Jonathan goes viral every time, she was called names (but) we never heard a situation where she ordered security agencies to arrest any person.
“As a public officer, you have to be tolerant, if you don’t have tolerance, you will need to arrest everyone because immediately they criticise you, the next thing is that you order the police or the DSS (Department of State Services) to arrest them,” Ubani said.
Although the police have denied arresting Adamu, the Federal University Dutse in Jigawa State and his parents confirmed that the student was arrested.
Ubani, who said his team is working on the case said, “The arrest was at the instance of the President’s wife and that has not been denied. He (Adamu) was secretly arraigned yesterday (Wednesday) and is now in a correctional centre and that has not been denied.
“I think that what has been said that the President’s wife has added some flesh, if you look at the woman when she came, she was looking slimmer but today, she has added flesh and that is the truth.”
The lawyer said the President’s wife should have asked the police to invite and interrogate Adamu in a civilised manner if she felt offended.
“We cannot use a sledgehammer to kill a fly,” he noted.
Ubani said he used to appreciate Mrs Buhari because she tried to “side the masses but this act of hers, I condemn it unequivocally”.
“It is absolutely wrong, she has to release that young man. That is the only way we can forgive Mrs Aisha Buhari,” he said.
He stressed that the student must be released before Monday to commence his final-year examination.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has condemned the detention of Aminu Adamu, planning to stage a nationwide protest on Monday December 5, 2022 if Adamu is not released unconditionally.
NANS President, Usman Barambu, made this known in a statement on Thursday.
He said, “Sequel to the exhaustion of all options available to us before confrontation in seeking the freedom of one of us who was arrested in a questionable manner, tortured, molested, harassed and detained by agents of the government, you are hereby notified of the decision of the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students to proceed on a nationwide protest,” the NANS president said in a memo to the organs of the association.
“We have consulted and consolidated and neither yielded desirable results in seeking the freedom of AMINU ADAMU MUHAMMED, student of the Federal University Dutse, hence the protest shall commence as follows: Monday 5th December, 2022 Nationwide.”
Barambu specifically said the protest is against Mrs Buhari and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba, noting that the demonstration will continue until the student is released.
Neither the First Lady nor the Presidency has commented on the matter as of press time.
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