Police arrest man for ‘defaming character’ of Borno government official

The Borno state police has arrested Sultan Usman, a social media activist, for criticising Adam Bababe, the executive secretary of the state geographical information service, over flood prevention measures in the state.

Following a flood incident in Borno in September, Bababe posted on X, suggesting that communities resisted his agency’s steps to implement flood prevention measures for the disaster.

“Emergency Lovers of Borno… kindly note that the government faced strong resistance from the public to enforce prevention,” he wrote in September.

“Go through our activities and go around all flood-prone areas to ask them if we hadn’t warned them or marked their houses since 2020. They know what they bought.”

The post drew many reactions, including one from Usman.

According to PremiumTimes, Bababe said the activist made another statement on social media allegedly abusing him in March.

Bababe said although his post was deleted immediately, he reported Usman to the police, leading to his arrest on Monday.

Nahum Daso, the police spokesperson in Borno, confirmed the arrest to TheCable on Saturday but said he could not yet provide more details.

“He was arrested for cyberstalking and defamation of character,” he said.

Hamza Dantani, Usman’s lawyer, said the detention of the activist as “illegal”.

“The crime he committed is bailable. But what annoyed me the most was that Engr. Bababe at first told me he was going to give an order for his release after he spent three days in detention, but he didn’t,” he said.

“When I contacted him for the second time, he said he was briefed at the station and changed his mind.”

Meanwhile, Mohammed Lawal, the Borno state commissioner of police, confirmed Usman was detained, but said he was released “around 2:30pm on Friday”.

Lawal said Usman was released on Friday night after obtaining an apology offerred on his behalf by his father.