Katsina State Governor Buys 3000 Coffins, detains Blogger who criticized Policy

The police in Katsina has arrested a Blogger, Jamil Mabai for criticising the purchase of 3000 coffins for distribution to mosques by the Katsina state governor, Aminu Masari.

Mabai had criticised the motive behind the purchase of 3000 coffins a rate N40,000 each when the same governor is yet to pay outstanding salary to civil servants in the State.

He wondered whether the governor wants the people of the State to die with the purchase of the coffins, considering the economic situation of the country.

Justifying his arrest, the Commissioner of Police, Katsina State, Usman Abdulahi said the blogger was detained for posting that the government bought the coffins because it wanted people to die.

“The state government complained that Jamil wrote that it had bought 3,000 coffins and distributed to mosques and may be it wanted Katsina people to die.

“Any reasonable person will ask one or two questions. This is why we had to invite him to assist the police.”

Recall that two weeks ago, Emenike Iroegbu who publisher of Abia Facts Newspapers was arrested over offences bordering on “defamation”.

In his case, the Abia State Government said “He recently published an article saying the governor buried a 9-year-old in the Government House in Umuahia”

In the last one year, Nigeria has witnessed an upsurge in arrests of citizens over their activities on the Internet.

In August 2015, three bloggers —Demond Ike, Seun Oloketuyi and Chris Nwandu— were arrested and charged for offences that allegedly contravened Cybercrime Act in Lagos.

Mr. Ike spent six months in custody, parts of which were in Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison.

A month later, Emmanuel Ojo, was arrested in Abeokuta allegedly on the orders of Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, after posting some “offensive” materials on Facebook. The charges preferred against him remained stalled in the Abeokuta Division of the Federal High Court.

Mr. Ojo said he had since fled Nigeria to another West African country after “threats from powerful people became unbearable.”

On August 8, 2016, Abubakar Usman, a pro-government blogger, was also arrested and detained for nearly two days for apparently publishing a report critical of the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu.