By Jennifer Amarachi
Shafi’u Umar Tureta has been placed under detention in a Correctional Center by a Chief Magistrate’s Court in Sokoto over allegations of falsehood against Sokoto State Governor, Ahmad Aliyu.
Tureta, the former Special Assistant to the former governor of State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, was accused of spreading harmful, false information and engraving material that was known to be derogatory.
On August 26, the lawsuit was initially brought up, with accusations that seemed to defame the celebrities’ reputations. First Information Report (FIR) states that the accused individual committed the offenses on July 18, 2024.
Inspector Abdurahman Mansur, the Police Prosecutor, told the court that the accused’s actions violated criminal code law.
The accused had shared a video of the Governor’s wife, Hajia Fatima Aliyu, distributing money on the ground during her birthday ceremony.
Tureta was also accused of circulating a paper claiming that Governor Aliyu failed his Senior Secondary School Examination, scored F9, and is unable to speak English.
However, when the FIR was read to the him, he denied the charges, and his counsel, Barrister Al’Mustafa Abubakar, submitted an oral application for his release, which was denied by the prosecution.
Magistrate Fatima Hassan, the presiding judge, had set aside Friday to rule on the bail request. When the matter came up for a decision, the Chief Magistrate refused him bail, stating that the Defense Counsel was required to submit a formal application for the accused person’s bail due to the seriousness of the offenses and that the FIR was the only document in front of her.
As a result, Hassan remanded the accused in the custody of the Correctional Center and postponed the case until September 18, 2024 for a hearing.
