Two human rights groups, the Social Economic Rights and Accountability Project Group (SERAP) and Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, demanded the immediate and unconditional release of an undergraduate of the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State, Aminu Adamu, from arbitrary arrest and unlawful detention.

Aminu Adamu was arrested on November 8, allegedly on the orders of the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, after reportedly tweeting in June that Nigeria’s first lady had got “fatter by eating the masses’ money.” He was said to have tweeted this in Hausa.

The 23-year-old was picked up on the campus of the Federal University Dutse, in Jigawa State. It was not clear what specific charges, if any, Adamu is being held under, but Deputy Director of SERAP, Kolawole Oluwadare, in a statement, threatened legal action if Aminu is not released as reports said his family and friends alleged that he was held incommunicado and subjected to severe beating, torture and other forms of ill-treatment.

Also, HURIWA described the action of his detention as abuse of power and absolutely unconstitutional, decrying that insecurity has become overwhelming, so much that security forces are finding it difficult to defeat terrorists, as government has consistently deployed security assets and manpower to monitor social media gossips and eavesdropping on telephone communications of Nigerians.

HURIWA’s national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, yesterday, categorised the arrest as absolutely unlawful and criminal.

He regretted that the arrest of the student occurred at a time he was about to sit for his final examinations in school, while his whereabouts became unknown to his family.

The secretive manner of his arrest, which is not different from the modality of kidnappers, was condemned by HURIWA.

“HURIWA is therefore asking President Muhammadu Buhari to order the Inspector-General of Police to immediately release the student kidnapped by them just for expressing his opinion, which is protected under Chapter 4 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the statement said. (The Guardian)

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