The Police in Kwara has withdrawn a case of alleged defamation against Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq before an Ilirin Chief Magistrate Court for further investigation.
This followed an application on Wednesday by the prosecuting counsel, Insp. Nasir Yusuf.
The Chief Magistrate, Mr Ibrahim Mohammed, said that the application of the prosecuting counsel was worthy of granting and the FIR was worthy of termination.
“I hereby terminate the FIR, for further investigation,” Ibrahim said.
The police prosecutor had earlier told the court that he received a call from his superior, SP AbdulRaheem Yusuf, while the court was on one hour break, to withdraw the FIR for further investigation.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the prosecutor had earlier told the court that on July 22, the Police Command in Kwara received a petition from the State Ministry of Justice.
The petition involved criminal conspiracy, defamation, inciting public disturbance and injurious falsehood.
Yusuf said that one Olusegun Olusola, also known as Sholyment, concocted a fake news and uploaded a viral news through Facebook online, with his accomplices; Kayode Ogunlowo and Babatunde Saka.
He said that the accused persons uploaded a viral Facebook post that made injurious statement against AbdulRazaq and his sister, Sen. Khairat Gwadabe.
Also included was the Chairperson of Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), Mrs Shade Omoniyi, with their photographs to the effect.
The prosecutor said that the first accused, Olushola, reported that KWIRS purportedly gave the sum of N150 million to Sen. Khairat Gwadabe as Sallah gift.
Yusuf said that the first accused also misled and made a false allegation that the N150 million allegedly given to AbdulRazaq’s family, was sufficient to pay 5,000 workers, for the unsubstantiated salary arrears of local government and SUBEB staff.
He said that the said Facebook posts were injurious falsehood against the aforementioned personalities and also aimed at inciting the public against the government of the state.
Yusuf said that investigation was still in progress, as it revealed that the suspects were notorious and habitual Facebook bloggers, who specialised in tarnishing the names of prominent and highly placed citizens. (NAN)
