A Chief Magistrate’s Court in Jigawa State, on Wednesday, sentenced to prison a social media commentator following his Facebook comments which accused Governor Muhammadu Badaru of fraud.
The convict, Sabi’u Chamo, a social media promoter of Sabo Nakudu, an APC senator for Jigawa Central, accused Governor Badaru for duping APC aspirants by collecting their money with the promise to give them party tickets.
Mr Nakudu is the leader of a factional group of the APC in the state as opposed to the Mr Badaru’s faction of the party.
Earlier, the governor, while inaugurating the state APC caretaker committee, said “I will remain vigilant watching those of you going to meeting with the other factional group, you have got enough of my patience, I will no longer tolerate that again.
The state government earlier on December 24 sued Mr Chamo over the Facebook statement. However, the court ordered that the police should effect his arrest and investigate the suspect before prosecution, which the police did.
Before his arrest, Mr Chamo, earlier on December 20, retracted his statement on Facebook and apologised to those who might have been offended, saying ”that I learnt that my write up have offended many which is why I am apologizing, thank you, he wrote on his Facebook page in Hausa Language.
The spokesperson for the state’s Ministry of Justice, Zainab Baba-Santali, in a statement confirmed that Mr Chamo was sentenced to six months in a correctional facility for his comments which injured the governor’s reputation.
The court, however, gave the convict an optional fine of N20,000.
The Chief Magistrate’s Court 1 sitting in Dutse presided over by Batula Dauda also said the convicted person would receive 20 lashes of stroke for the comments to serve as a deterrent to others.
During the trial, after the charge was read to the defendant, he pleaded guilty to the offence after which the court sentenced him to six (6) months in a correctional center or Twenty thousand Naira fine (20,000) and 20 strokes of cane to serve as a deterrent to others.
Thenigerialawyer
