DSS ARRAIGNS MAN OVER FAKE TINUBU LETTER TO US PRESIDENT

The Department of State Services has arraigned one Mubarak Abdullahi, also known as Sardaunan Samari, for sharing a fake document purportedly written by President Bola Tinubu and addressed to the President of the United States.

The case saw the suspect charged with three counts bordering on cybercrime and defamation at the Federal High Court in Kaduna, ValidViewNetwork reports.

THE ARREST

Abdullahi was arrested on September 28 for sharing the fake document on his Facebook page with the caption “ATIKU IS COMING,” according to President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

“Mubarak admitted to investigators that he shared the fake document and apologised for his actions. The contrition was not enough,” Onanuga wrote on X.

The DSS arraigned him before Chief Magistrate Court No. 10, Kabala Doki, Kaduna, which ordered his remand at the Nigerian Correctional Centre, Kaduna.

The agency has filed a three-count charge bordering on cybercrime and defamation against him at the Federal High Court, Kaduna.

The date for Abdullahi’s formal arraignment is yet to be fixed .

SOWORE’S REACTION

ADVERTISEMENT

Human rights activist and AAC presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore criticised the arrest, accusing the DSS of being used to suppress dissent.

“How low will you go, #OfficialAPCNg and the #officialABAT regime? How on earth do you reduce a national security agency like the #OfficialDSSNG to a mere vacuum cleaner, deployed to sweep up dissenting voices in your inordinate ambition to subdue every citizen simply because you are afraid to face the Nigerian people and account for your disastrous reign?” Sowore wrote on X.

“Arresting a hapless citizen for posting a document online – sad! Shame on all of you! A day of reckoning is coming, when you too will be held accountable for your actions. That day is coming sooner than you think. Very soon!”.

THE CONTEXT

Onanuga described Abdullahi as “an avowed supporter of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.”

However, ValidViewNetwork could not independently verify this claim. Neither Atiku nor his media aide, Phrank Shaibu, had reacted to the development as of the time of the report.

WHY IT MATTERS

The arrest of Mubarak Abdullahi raises fundamental questions about the boundaries between free speech and cybercrime in Nigeria.

He shared a document that was fake. He admitted it. He apologised. And now he faces trial.

But the timing of the arrest—weeks after the post was shared, and just as the 2027 campaign heats up, has fueled suspicions that the DSS is being used to intimidate opposition supporters.

Sowore’s criticism captures the fear: that the machinery of state security is being deployed not to protect Nigerians, but to silence them. Whether that fear is justified will depend on how the case is prosecuted.

But for now, a man sits in a correctional centre for a Facebook post. ValidViewNetwork reports.