Aisha Buhari, Nigeria’s first lady, has withdrawn case against a final year student of the Federal University, Dutse, Aminu Adamu.
Adamu, 24, was arrested by the police in Dutse for allegedly publishing a defamatory statement on his Twitter handle against Mrs Buhari.
In the allegedly offending tweet, Adamu, who is studying Environmental Management, posted a rotund picture of the first lady with a caption in Hausa saying, “Mama is feeding fat on poor people’s money. The tweet was posted on June 8, 2022.
After nearly two weeks in detention and alleged torture, he was arraigned on Tuesday before Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama, where he pleaded not guilty and was remanded at Suleja prison in Niger State.
But withdrawing the case against the accused on Friday, the prosecution counsel, Fidelis Ogbobe said the First Lady as the mother of the nation decided to withdraw the case, following the intervention of well-meaning Nigerians.
He relied on Section 108 subsection 2(a) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act to move the application for the withdrawal of the case.
Ruling on the matter, Justice Yusuf Halilu of the FCT High Court commended Mrs Buhari for taking the “bold steps” to forgive the accused.
He called on parents to always monitor their children to avoid recurrence.
Students under the umbrella of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Friday called for a nationwide protest against the detention of Aminu.
In a statement to its members, Usman Barambu, NANS president, condemned Muhammad’s detention and demanded his unconditional release.
According to Barambu: “Sequel to the exhaustion of all options available to us before confrontation in seeking the freedom of one of us who was arrested in questionable manner, tortured, molested, harassed and detained by agents of 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 statement reads.
“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 added that the demonstration will continue until the student is released “unconditionally”.
