How we arrested student who criticized Aisha Buhari – Police
Fresh details have emerged on how Mr Aminu Adamu, a student of the Federal University, Dutse, was arrested for trolling the wife of the Nigerian President, Aisha Buhari, on Twitter.
In the allegedly offending tweet, Mr Adamu, who is a final year student 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 8 June but Mr Adamu, trailed by a team of detectives, was arrested in Dutse, North-West Nigeria, on 18 November and whisked to Abuja.
After nearly two weeks in detention, Mr Adamu was arraigned on Tuesday before a judge, Yusuf Halilu, of the Federal Capital Territory High Court at Maitama, where he pleaded not guilty and was remanded at Suleja prison in Niger State.
Festus Josiah, a police detective attached to the ‘Anti Vice Section A’ in Mararaba, Nasarawa State, in his statement filed as part of the prosecution’s proof of evidence, disclosed that he was contacted by Mrs Buhari’s Aide De Camp (ADC), Usman Shugaba, concerning the defendant’s tweet.
Mr Josiah said he works with the office of the first lady as a phone “tracker.”
He revealed that his team travelled to Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, on a Monday and trailed Mr Adamu for three days before they tracked him down.
“When we got his phone, an Iphone 7, we saw the Twitter account on the phone. We also saw the (alleged offending) post,” Mr Josiah disclosed in his statement dated 19 November.
He said the undergraduate was brought to the FCT State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID).
According to court filings, Mr Adamu’s confiscated phone has been sent to the Terrorism Investigation Branch, Force Intelligence Bureau in Abuja “for analysis” and “evidential value.”
