The Department of State Services (DSS) has filed a three-count charge bordering on cybercrime and defamation against a Kaduna man accused of circulating a fake letter purportedly written by President Bola Tinubu to the President of the United States.
The suspect, Mubarak Abdullahi, also known as Sardaunan Samari, was arrested on September 28 after allegedly sharing the document on his Facebook page with the caption, “ATIKU IS COMING.”
President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this in a post on X late Monday, saying Abdullahi had been arraigned before Chief Magistrate Court No. 10, Kabala Doki, Kaduna.
The tweet read, “An avowed supporter of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar now faces trial in Kaduna for circulating a document purportedly written by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the President of the United States of America.
“The suspect, Mubarak Abdullahi (aka Sardaunan Samari), was arrested on 28 September for sharing the fake document on his Facebook page with the caption “ATIKU IS COMING.”
“Mubarak admitted to investigators that he shared the fake document and apologised for his actions. The contrition was not enough.
“The DSS arraigned him before Chief Magistrate Court No. 10, Kabala Doki, Kaduna, which ordered his remand at the Nigerian Correctional Centre, Kaduna,” adding that the agency “has filed a three-count charge bordering on cybercrime and defamation against him at the Federal High Court, Kaduna.”
Onanuga, however, said the DSS would continue to demonstrate its ability to identify people involved in circulating what he described as misleading information online.
Meanwhile, human rights activist and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) Omoyele Sowore criticised the arrest, accusing the DSS of being used to suppress dissent.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Sowore questioned the agency’s involvement in the case and described the arrest as an attempt to silence a citizen over an online post.
“How low will you go, #OfficialAPCNg and the #officialABAT regime? How on earth do you reduce a national security agency like the #OfficialDSSNG to a mere vacuum cleaner, deployed to sweep up dissenting voices in your inordinate ambition to subdue every citizen simply because you are afraid to face the Nigerian people and account for your disastrous reign?” he wrote.
Sowore added, “Arresting a hapless citizen for posting a document online – sad! Shame on all of you! A day of reckoning is coming, when you too will be held accountable for your actions. That day is coming sooner than you think. Very soon!”
Neither Atiku nor his media aide, Phrank Shaibu, had publicly reacted to the development as of the time of writing.