Founder and Chairman of Chocolate City Entertainment Group, Audu Maikori, has accused former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, of persecuting him over a 2017 tweet he acknowledged and took down, alleging that the ex-governor organised for his abduction.
Maikori made the allegations while fielding questions in an interview on Arise Television ‘Prime Time’ programme, exercising his right of reply following El-Rufai’s appearance on the same programme on Friday.
“It’s not personal. It is about setting the record straight and the facts straight. Ex-governor El-Rufai has a penchant for recreating stories.
Everything that he said is untrue. And I think it’s important for posterity to set the record straight,” Maikori stated.
Recall that on February 18, 2017, Audu Maikori was arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services following social media posts in which he claimed that five students of the College of Education Gidan Waya had been killed during violence in Southern Kaduna.
The claim later generated controversy, with then Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai criticising the posts as unverified and potentially inflammatory.
He argued that publishing such information without proper checks could heighten tensions and possibly trigger retaliatory attacks, stressing that safeguarding lives and property required responsible use of social media.
February, 2017,” he said.
According to him, the said retraction was published, “Very well published. You can Google it. You’ll find it very detailed. I apologised not only to the governor, but to every other person involved.”
police discharged him.
“What happened? The next weekend, Malam was on Social Media Week, and he said, oh, Maikori is a liar. We’re going to prosecute him. We’re trying to link his tweets with the possible death of 7 people.
And if we’re able to do so, you could know the rest.
“How does a governor do that? The police discharged me. The highest office, how does a governor do the job of the police?”
He further stated that the courts later ruled his arrest unlawful, with both the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal awarding damages.
“What does Nasir do? He goes to the Supreme Court. So the case is in the Supreme Court. It comes up next year. We’re going to win, of course, and my intention is that the proceeds from the damages shall be used to support journalists and people that cannot get legal representation,” he said.
