Chocolate City co-founder Audu Maikori was
recently arrested by the police over a series of tweets he sent to his
followers alleging that students of the Kaduna State College of Education had
been killed by Fulani Herdsmen in Southern Kaduna.
He is currently out on bail but Kaduna State
Governor Nasir El-Rufai, speaking at the on-going Social Media Week 2017 on
Thursday, said the music mogul will face the full brunt of the law for
publishing “fake stories and pictures”.
“We are going to prosecute him. He was
arrested. His statement has been taken. He is on bail. He is going to be prosecuted.
His fate will be decided by a judge,” El-Rufai said.
While insisting that he had no personal
grouse against Audu, the governor noted that prosecuting him would serve as a
deterrent to people who spread untrue information on social media.
He
said, “It is not personal. I have nothing against him.In fact, he has worked
with the state government in the past. But I’m not going to sit as the governor
of Kaduna State and allow anyone to post or tweet anything that leads to lost
of lives without consequences.”
Audu,
El-Rufai said, was informed about the untrue nature of his posts but still
doubled down on them.
“He
posted fake pictures of Boko Haram attacks, Rwandan genocide as Southern Kaduna
killings. It is totally irresponsible to do that.
“Even
when it was pointed out to him that the information was untrue, he still posted
that he stood by his story. He questioned the authenticity of the press
statement. He was totally and completely irresponsible.
The
music mogul and lawyer was arrested on
February 17 by policemen attached to the inspector-general’s
monitoring and intelligence team over ‘inciting comments’ he made on social
media on Southern Kaduna killings.
In
a series of tweets on January 23, he alleged that five students of Kaduna State
College of Education, Gidan Waya, Kafanchan, were murdered by Fulani herdsmen.
“My
driver’s younger brother and five others students of college of education Gidan
Waya were ambushed and killed by herdsmen yesterday #SouthernKaduna,” he said
in one of the tweets.
But
the school’s management denied that any of its students was killed. Kaduna
State also condemned the misinformation and vowed to prosecute rumour peddlers.
Before
his arrest, however, Maikori apologised for the wrong information contained in
his tweets, claiming that he was misled by his driver, who himself was an
indigene of Southern Kaduna. The driver, he said, was handed over to the police
after he (Maikori) decided to further investigate the story to “ensure that all
the facts of the case and evidence were presented to the authorities.”
“I
hereby tender an unreserved and sincere apology to the Management of the
College of Education, Gidan Waya, His Excellency the Governor of Kaduna State
and the Kaduna State Government, and also to the people of Southern Kaduna and
the Fulani community and also VANGUARD newspapers whose source was my driver
for the false statement by my driver which I also publicized believing same to
be true,” Maikori said in a statement on February 5.
“This action is made even more
imperative because I understand that as a leader in my community, my statements
are taken seriously and shapes the narrative. But nothing is more important in
leadership than owning up to mistakes honestly and with integrity regardless of
the repercussions or circumstances.”
Southern
Kaduna, recently for a few weeks, was a scene of bloody conflicts between
suspected Fulani herdsmen and indigenes of the area with scores of the
residents killed. The conflicts forced the state government to impose a 24-hour
curfew on Zangon Kataf which was only relaxed on February 4 to “6 pm and 6 am”.
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