A Kaduna-based social activist and whistleblower, Malam Mahdi Shehu, was arrested by the police for calling on President Bola Tinubu to probe former President Muhammadu Buhari and some of his top officials, his counsel, Barrister M.I. Abubakar, has said.
He said his client was arrested and detained on Tuesday afternoon in Abuja by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Monitoring Unit ostensibly on a petition written by Buhari’s former attorney-general and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami.
The whistleblower’s arrest came 24 hours after through his verified X handle, accused some of Buhari government top officials of sponsoring a campaign of calumny against Mr Jim Obazee, the special investigator appointed by President Tinubu to investigate the tenure of Godwin Emefiele at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Abubakar revealed this in a statement titled: “On the arrest of and detention of social critic/activist and whistleblower, Muhammad Mahdi Shehu,” which he issued in Abuja yesterday.
The counsel said the police claimed to have arrested Mahdi in his hotel room in Abuja based on a tip by Malami, relating to an alleged WhatsApp chat between him and Mahdi claiming that the latter attempted to extort N500 million from him.
The statement read in part, “Although the petition made allegations of hacking and compromise of emails and Bank accounts of the former AGF and some members of his family as well as an attempt to open a fake bank account in the name of a member of the family and extortion of about N20 million from a member of the family by a syndicate, no mention was made of the name of Muhammad Mahdi Shehu in the petition.”
However, Mahdi, through his counsel, has denied these allegations, saying, “For the records, our client denies categorically the allegation of extorting money from Malami (SAN) or any member of his family and indeed any of the allegations made against him by Malami and his chambers or family.”
Mahdi had also in the past few months made publications critical of some prominent members of the government of former President Buhari, especially Malami and specifically called for his arrest and prosecution.
“The arrest and detention of our client may therefore not be unconnected with concerted efforts by Malami and other prominent members of the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari accused by Mahdi to deal with him for having the temerity to dare them publicly and to silence and put him away from circulation for a long time,” the lawyer said.
Mahdi was similarly arrested and detained twice over long periods by the same IGP Monitoring Unit between 2021 and 2022 over allegations he made against top officials of the Katsina State government under the leadership of the governor of the state, Aminu Bello Masari of allegedly corruptly and fraudulently diverting billions of naira belonging to the Katsina State government under the guise of security spending.
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