A Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, has remanded a businessman, Ali Yakubu, in prison custody over a Facebook post he made calling the state governor, Ahmadu Fintiri the “father of all thieves.”
The judgment remanding Yakubu was made by Magistrate Japhet Basani of Chief Magistrate Court II on Tuesday, declaring that he should be sent to a Correctional Center for ridiculing and insulting the governor on social media.
The charges against the businessman was “publishing insulting and denigrating statements in Hausa and Fulfulde against Fintiri on the 11th, 12th, 13th, 17th, 20th and 29th July, 2021 respectively, on his Facebook page.”
In the said Facebook post, Yakubu had allegedly described Fintiri as “a thief, a father of all thieves in Nigeria who stole Indomie, spaghetti and billions of naira.”
A statement of complaint by the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Afraimu Jingi, in behalf of Governor Fintiri, said the action of the defendant had generated tension in the state which was capable of causing incitement and a breach of peace.
When the complaint was read and interpreted to the defendant, he admitted that he had indeed insulted Governor Fintiri.
Counsel to the complainant, M.A. Adamu, prayed the court to adjourn the matter to enable him assemble witnesses to corroborate the plea entered by the defendant, prompting the Magistrate to order his remand in the Yola Correctional Service facility.
