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Shafiu Umar Tureta, an aide to Senator Aminu Tambuwal, has been remanded in prison for allegedly insulting Governor Ahmad Aliyu of Sokoto State on Facebook.
Tureta, who was arrested by armed security operatives on Sunday, August 25, was also accused of insulting the governor, his wife, Fatima Aliyu, and his deputy in a Facebook post.
The senator’s aide who allegedly committed the offences in July was said to have shared a video of Governor Aliyu struggling to construct a sentence in English and also posted his senior secondary school leaving certificate on social media.
The Facebook post indicated that the governor failed his Senior Secondary School Examination as he scored F9 in English.
Tureta was remanded in prison on Monday, August 26, 2024, but according to Premium Times, the magistrate, Fatima Hassan, barred reporters from covering the court proceedings.
The police’s First Information Report (FIR) stated that the state government charged Tureta with circulating injurious falsehood and engraving matter known to be defamatory, which is said to violate the Penal Code law.
He was said to have committed the offences in July, when he allegedly shared videos of the governor’s wife, spreading money on the ground during her birthday ceremony.
While speaking to reporters, Tureta’s lawyer, Yusuf Abubakar, said his client denied the charges and made an oral application for his bail.
The Magistrate adjourned the ruling on the bail application to Tuesday, September 6, and ordered his remand in the correctional facility till then.
Tureta is the special assistant on local and digital media to Tambuwal, the former governor of Sokoto, who served the state from 2015 to 2023.