A pharmacist, Solomon Akuma, is currently in the detention of the Nigeria Police Force and has spent more than six months in custody for allegedly making a social media post against President Muhammadu Buhari and his late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari.
Akuma, a pharmacist intern with NAFDAC, was arrested for tweeting that he will “pay a Russian sniper to eliminate Buhari and Kyari” in response to a Twitter post asking “if $1m hits your account, your next move?”.
The pharmacist spent almost three months in detention without a court order or trial until he was eventually arraigned at the Federal High Court for charges bordering on terrorism, sedition, criminal intimidation of the President, and threat to life of Buhari.
The court denied his bail application, effectively confining Akuma to detention of over 150 days now and still running.
The next adjourned date for his trial is October 7, 2020.
Lawyers have described the charges of “terrorism, sedition, criminal intimidation of the President, and threat to life of the President” against Akuma as baseless.
Also, the pharmacist’s detention for close to three months without a court order or arraignment negates the provisions of the Nigerian constitution.
The Buhari government is notorious for clamping down on voices of dissent, shrinking the civic space, disobeying court orders and violating citizens’ fundamental rights.
