The Chief Magistrate Court (CMC 1) at Ibrahim Taiwo road in Kaduna State on Tuesday ordered the detention of activist Mahdi Shehu in prison for making a social media post that allegedly threatened national security.
Based on the order, the activist would be held at the Kaduna Correctional Service Facility following his arraignment on charges bordering on conspiracy, aiding and abetting terrorism and inciting public disturbances on Tuesday.
Agents of the State Secret Services arrested Mr Shehu during the weekend over his now-deleted social media post suggesting President Bola Tinubu was pandering to Western interests and planning to establish a French military base in the Northwestern region of the country.
Mr Shehu alleged that Mr Tinubu enlisted French soldiers to train the Nigerian military and implied that the Nigerian president planned to cede some sections of the country to France. But Information minister Mohammed Idris debunked the claims, labelling them as “baseless” assertions.
To refute the minister’s denial, the activist posted the video on Boxing Day that showed Nigerian soldiers lifting supplies from an aircraft.
The claim coincided with allegations from Niger Republic coup leader, Abdourahamane Tchiani, who recently asserted that Nigeria was colluding with France to disrupt their military regime.
The video, originally uploaded by Associated Press (AP), showed Nigerian troops disembarking from aircraft carrying supplies in what was reported to be a peacekeeping mission by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The troops had just landed at the Senou International Airport in Bamako, Mali.
Mr Shehu later deleted the video, deemed to be old and which The Cable fact-checked to have been uploaded to YouTube in January 2013. The activist uploaded the video as response to the information minister’s rebuttal.
But the deletion seemed not to assuage the security agencies who have now charged the activist to court on terrorism charges.
“From today, no sane person will believe Tinubu, Ribadu, all service chiefs, and any member of the blotted Tinubu crowd on the physical presence of France (sic) troops in Northwest Nigeria,” Mr Shehu wrote on X around 9:26 p.m. on December 26. He attached the video to the post.
Mr Shehu, a prominent whistleblower and prolific writer whose works have been well-documented across the northern region, had faced persecution in the past.
One such incident in February 2024, a former justice minister, Abubakar Malami, made an unproven allegation of extortion against him.
Mr Malami claimed that the activist sought to extort his wife, Aisha, of $500,000 but Mr Shehu denied the allegations asserting that it was an attempt to taint his reputation because he was working on a story that could expose the former minister’s alleged fraudulent activities.
Mr Shehu’s terrorism trial has been shifted to January 14 for further hearing.
