A former lecturer with the Kaduna State University, Dr. John Danfulani, has been remanded in the Kaduna Prison for 12 days for criticizing the administrative style of Malam Nasir El-Rufai.
Danfulani had won at a lower court when charged by the El-Rufai government over a Facebook post.
The former lecturer in the department of political science of the state university, has been having a running battle with the state government over his persistence criticism of the administration of Governor Nasir El-rufai, an administration he worked for its emergence.
He was earlier arraigned in January 2016 before a Magistrate Court by the State’s Commissioner of Police over a Facebook post he was alleged to have made criticizing the state and federal government’s handling of economic issues.
He spent six days in prison before his bail application could be heard, but the case was subsequently struck out for lack of merit when it came up for hearing.
He later resigned from his lecturing job over what he termed as ‘harassment’.
But today, Wednesday, the Kaduna State Ministry of Justice filed a fresh case numbered: KDH/KAD/102c/16 against him at the State High Court, before Justice Bilkisu Mohammed.
In the ‘Notice to Prefer a Charge’, signed by both Bayero Dari and Abdullahi Isiaka for the Ministry of Justice, the state said that the criminal charges against Dr. Danfulani fell under section 417 and 418 of the Penal Code.
They went ahead to state that the alleged Facebook post he made on 28th December 2015, where he talked about fuel scarcity, high foreign exchange and a high number of out of school children in the north, sought to excite hatred and contempt against the people of Nigeria.
When the case came up for hearing Wednrsday, Dr. Danfulani, pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him.
But the Judge said he should be remanded in prison till the 7th of November, 2016, when she would be back from a ‘seminar’ to listen to the bail application.
Dr. Danfulani, who spoke to newsmen at the court premises before being taken to prison, said he was being persecuted for simply criticizing the activities of both the state and the federal government.
He added that the constitution of the federal government gave him the right to freely express his opinion on issues of governance that he was not comfortable with.
Source: dailypost.ng
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