Audu Maikori, lawyer and Nigerian music industry mogul, has been arrested by the Nigeria Police Force on the orders of Kaduna Governor, Nasir El Rufai.
According to information available to The Trent, the boss of Chocolate City, was picked up in Lagos, on Friday [February 17, 2017], where he lives and flown to the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
The governor ordered his arrest following advocacy that Maikori, a native of Southern Kaduna, had been doing online over the systematic killing of his people by the Islamist terrorist group, the Fulani herdsmen militia.
Mark Jacob, a lawyer involved in the case, told our reporter by 9.30 pm on Friday that he had just left the Police headquarters in Abuja and that a pre-arranged detention order had been issued on Maikori even before he was arrested and his statement taken.
“Audu has been detained There was nothing we could do as the detention order had been signed before his statement was even taken,” Jacob, an indigene of Southern Kaduna, said. “The superior officers that could vary the detention order had all closed for the day leaving only the rank and file who were apparently, just obeying orders.”
MI Abaga, the CEO of Chocolate City and one of Nigeria’s leading rappers, has taken to Twitter to confirm the news of Maikori’s arrest and called on Nigerians online to demand for his release.
Our civil rights must not be encroached!! @audu has been detained in Abuja right now.. #freeAudu @bellanaija @lindaikeji
— The Guy (@MI_Abaga) February 17, 2017
I voted for freedom of speech.. why is @Audu being denied it #FreeAudu cc @amnestyusa @BBCWorld @SaharaReporters @cnni
— The Guy (@MI_Abaga) February 17, 2017
Audu did not instigate hate..civil rights do give you the liberty to lie (like the instigation lie you are telling) unless you r under oath https://t.co/Pf35xYksDs
— The Guy (@MI_Abaga) February 17, 2017
Audu Maikori Marked
Maikori, was recently the target of the All Progressives Congress’ online attack squad, after he relayed a story about the killing of 6 students of a college of education by Fulani herdsmen terrorists on Twitter.
After intense scrutiny, he discovered that his driver had lied to him about the attack which, Simon, the driver, had said his brother was killed.
Audu Maikori issued a retraction and an apology for the misleading report.
Meanwhile, Governor Nasir El Rufai, in his usual vindictive approach to governance, has threatened to deal with Maikori and other indigenes of Southern Kaduna who advocate against the systematic killings of their people who are dominantly Christian, and therefore, killed by an organised Islamist terrorist group, the Fulani herdsmen militia.
El Rufai, is a Muslim Fulani, and has used his position as governor to defend the Fulani herdsmen and threaten Christians from Southern Kaduna who dare to speak up on the genocide.
A journalist in Vanguard, Luka Binniyat, who relied on Maikori’s driver as the source for reporting on a story about the on-going genocide in Southern Kaduna was also arrested and interrogated by the country’s secret police, charged to court by the Kaduna State government, and remanded in prison on the orders of Governor Nasir El Rufai.
The Southern Kaduna Genocide
Southern Kaduna, a predominantly Christian area of the Northern state of Kaduna in Nigeria, has come under heavy and systematic ethnic and religious cleansing.
Terrorists operating under the umbrellas of the Islamist Fulani Herdsmen Militia, the 4th most deadly terrorist group in the world has been attacking communities in Southern Kaduna, killing, and maiming Christians and burning homes and churches.
Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State has publicly admitted that his government has found the members of the Fulani militia perpetuating the killing in Southern Kaduna and he has paid them a “compensation” for them to stop the killings. The governor revealed that the militia is made up of Fulani nomads from neighboring Cameroon, Mali, Niger and other countries.
The victims of these murders are Christians and their attackers are on an ethnic and religious cleaning mission, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN.
While Christians leaders have called on communities under attack to defend themselves against their attackers, Muslim clerics in Kaduna have called for the arrest of Christian religious and political leaders from Kaduna and other parts of the country who have called on Christians to defend themselves against their attackers.
These exchanges have led to an intense political environment.
