Aisha Buhari to testify against detained student despite public outcry

Nigeria’s First Lady Aisha Buhari is set to testify against Aminu Adamu, a student at Dutse Federal University, Jigawa state, for allegedly defaming her despite the public outcry that greeted the arrest of the student on her orders.

It is alleged that Mr. Adamu, 24, posted a defamatory statement on his Twitter account against Mrs. Buhari.

In the allegedly offensive tweet, Mr. Adamu, a senior Environmental Management student, posted an emphatic image of the first lady with a caption in Hausa that read: “Mom is feeding herself on poor people’s money.”

The tweet was posted on June 8, but Mr. Adamu, followed by a team of detectives, was arrested in Dutse, on November 18 and taken to Abuja.

After almost two weeks in detention, Adamu was arraigned Tuesday before a judge, Yusuf Halilu, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Maitama, and he pleaded not guilty and was transferred to Suleja prison in Niger state.

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In a charge marked: CR/89/2022, and dated November 23, police said Mr. Adamu “between May and June 2022 within the jurisdiction of this court, intentionally opened a Twitter handle with the name… Catalyst and screenshot the photograph of Her Excellency, Hajia Aisha Buhari, and wrote on it in Hausa language… roughly translated into English to mean ‘Mom has embezzled money meant for the poor for satisfaction’ and posted the same on his previous Twitter account… knowing that the same is false and capable of affecting her reputation.

Police said the alleged offense bordering on defamation and cyber bullying contravenes Section 391 of the Penal Code.

In a witness list attached to the exhibit presented by the police, seen Wednesday night, Mrs Buhari, the nominal whistleblower, is one of five witnesses gathered by the prosecution to establish the case against Mr. Adamu.

Another witness is Festus Jossiah, one of the investigators who followed and arrested the defendant. Abdulsalam Zakari, Yahaya Njayo and Haliru Tahir, all policemen, are the other proposed prosecution witnesses against the accused.

Court documents signed by James Idachaba, attorney for the FCT police, the legal department in Abuja listed Mr. Adamu’s statement, a printout of the alleged defamatory publication and an iPhone belonging to the defendant as evidence.

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