A State governor has ordered the detention of a man for allegedly posting an insult to him on his( the (victim) Facebook wall.
Moukhtar Ibrahim Aminu allegedly placed a curse directed to Jigiwa State Governor, Sule Lamido saying that Allah would curse him and his cohots.
“Allah curse Sule Lamido and all his useless friends,” the posting reads. “Allah make Sule Lamido and his friend useless.”
The message was placed in Hausa language.
Officers arrested Moukhtar Ibrahim Aminu in Jigawa state in late January for being a “public nuisance,” police spokesman Abdul Jinjiri said. Police held Aminu in jail for several days before bringing him to a local court, where he faced defamation charges. A judge sent him to jail pending the real trial.
Jinjiri said Aminu’s crime stemmed from a comment he posted Jan. 18 to the social networking website., Facebook.
Northern Nigeria is known for making Sharia law the predominant law above the national and conventional laws.
Writing in the local Hausa language, Aminu asked that divine punishment be levelled against Jigawa state Gov. Sule Lamido, a politician who helped form the ruling People’s Democratic Party when Nigeria became a democracy more than a decade ago.
“Nigerian law provides for freedom of speech in Africa’s most populous nation. A 1983 court decision clearly shows that politicians and others cannot demand the arrest of individuals who slander, libel or defame them”, lawyer and civil rights activist Femi Falana told Associated Press.
Still, Aminu was arrested, apparently at the request of the governor or his staff.
“In Nigeria, a lot of illegalities are committed by the government,” Falana said.
Umar Kyari, a spokesman for Lamido, declined to immediately comment Wednesday.
“Aminu’s arrest comes as Nigeria approaches a crucial April presidential election. Attacks against journalists and dissenters by police or gangs hired by politicians
in the nation of 150 million people”, says Associated Press
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