..As activists lawyer speaks
Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has given fresh insight into how and why activist, Mahdi Shehu, was arrested by the Police.
Malami who spoke through a statement signed by M.E Sheriff, his lawyer described how Shehu was nabbed by the police while on the trail of a suspected syndicate.
Sheriff said, “Our attention has been drawn to the above press statement that was made on February 7, 2024 as well as that of 13th January 2021, and we, as solicitors to Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN and his family, noted with grave concern that the press statement is totally not correct, misleading, malicious, and a grossly misrepresentation of the facts leading to the arrest. Therefore, we write to set the record straight for the benefit of the public.
“Without prejudice to the police investigation that is ongoing, the true facts relate to the Complaint/Petition which we wrote to the Inspector General of Police on allegations bordering on extortion, criminal intimidation and attempt to obtain money by false pretence against a syndicate using GSM Numbers and email addresses. This led to the ongoing investigation into the complaint by the Police.
“In the course of the investigation, the Police monitored the sustained communications between our clients and the syndicates, wherein the syndicate disclosed and gave Room Number 9, (a hotel in) Maitama, Abuja, as a place where our client would meet the syndicate’s agent for their own payments.
“On reaching the hotel and the room number, Mahdi Shehu was found therein at the scene …”, Sheriff said.
The statement alleged that there was yet another petition of “our client that borders on hacking and financial improprieties affecting Hajiya Aisha Abubakar Malami.
“On account of the compromise of our client’s emails, sensitive information was unlawfully extracted from an email account, and the sum of over N19,000,000.00 (Nineteen Million Naira) was unlawfully taken out of our client’s account by the syndicate …..
The person arrested, the statement claimed “came over to the said provided address to collect $500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand US Dollar) at the instance of the syndicate.
“The investigation and all the documents recovered thus far are there with the Police for any person that cares to verify what we are saying.
“Therefore, we should all encourage, support and allow the police to do their work as it is the outcome of the investigation that can confirm who is culpable and who is innocent; at the moment, if Mahdi Shehu, has any explanation to make regarding the arrest, he should do so to the police but certainly not to the press or embark on campaign of calumny via the social media,”Malami’s lawyer said.
Activist’s lawyer speaks:
M. I. Abubakar, the lawyer representing Mahdi Shehu, according to Sahara Reporters said in a statement, “Yesterday, 6th February, 2024 in the afternoon, our Client, MUHAMMAD MAHDI SHEHU, a renowned Kaduna-based social critic/activist, non-commercial whistleblower and successful businessman was arrested and detained in Abuja by the Inspector- General of Police (IGP) Monitoring Unit ostensibly on a petition written by A. A. MALAMI, SAN & CO. (the law firm of the immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation) for and on behalf of ABUBAKAR MALAMI, SAN the said immediate past AGF and his family.
“Although, the petition made allegations of hacking and compromise of emails and Bank accounts of the former AGF and some members of his family as well as an attempt to open a fake bank account in the name of a member of the family and extortion of about N 20,000,000.00 (twenty million naira) from a member of the family by a syndicate, no mention was made of the name of MUHAMMAD MAHDI SHEHU in the Petition.
“However, the Police claimed to have arrested Muhammad Madhi Shehu in his hotel room in Abuja based on a tip by ABUBAKAR MALAMI, SAN relating to an alleged WhatsApp chat between him and MADHI SHEHU claiming that the latter attempted to extort N500,000,000.00 (five hundred million naira) from him.
“The said allegation by MALAMI, SAN and the arrest of our Client, MAHDI SHEHU is coming just a day after he made a tweet on X (formerly Twitter) accusing some prominent members of the Government of former PRESIDENT MOHAMMED BUHARI from the North of sponsoring a campaign of calumny against OBAZEE, the Special Investigator appointed by PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU to investigate the affairs of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the leadership of GODWIN EMEFIELE in a recent Report in the Daily Trust Newspaper.
“MAHDI SHEHU had also in the past few months made publications very critical of some prominent members of the Government of former PRESIDENT MOHAMMED BUHARI especially MALAMI, SAN and specifically called for his arrest and prosecution.
“The arrest and detention of our Client may therefore not be unconnected with concerted efforts by MALAMI, SAN and other prominent members of the Government of former PRESIDENT MOHAMMED BUHARI accused by MAHDI SHEHU to deal with him for having the temerity to dare them publicly and to silence and put him away from circulation for a long time.
“It will be recalled that our Client, MAHDI SHEHU was similarly arrested and detained twice over long spans of time by the same IGP Monitoring Unit between 2021 and 2022 over allegations he made against top officials of the Katsina State Government under the leadership of then Governor of the State, AMINU BELLO MASARI of corruptly and fraudulently diverting billions of naira belonging to the Katsina State Government under the guise of security spendings.
“On those occasions, the FCT High Court and the Federal High Court, Abuja Division found the arrest and detention of MAHDI SHEHU unlawful and unconstitutional and respectively awarded N5,000,000.00 (Five Million Naira) and N20,000,000.00 (Twenty Million Naira) to him against the Police for his wrongful arrest and detention.
“While we concede to the right of the Police to investigate any allegation of crime against any citizen including our Client, we humbly call on the Police to respect the constitutional right of our Client to be released on bail pending investigation or charged to Court within 24 hours of his arrest regard being had of the fact that there are Courts of competent jurisdiction within Abuja to entertain any charge in respect of the allegations against him (section 35(5)(a) of the 1999 Constitution).
“We also call on the Police to respect our Client’s right to the dignity of his human person (section 34(1) of the 1999 Constitution) by affording him decent treatment while in their custody.
“For the records, our Client denies categorically the allegation of extorting money from MALAMI, SAN or any member of his family and indeed any of the allegations made against him by MALAMI, SAN and his Chambers or family.”
