Chocolate City boss, Audu Maikori has been arrested again by Nigerian Police. This time, he wasn’t transported to Abuja, but Kaduna State.
Maikori had earlier claimed that five students of College of Education, GidanWaya, Kaduna State, were killed in the conflict in southern Kaduna.
He later retracted the comments, stating that he was misinformed by his personal driver who had told him of the killing of students of the state’s college of education; which turned out to be false.
Maikori was first arrested on February 17 by the Nigerian Police Force in Lagos and flown to the Department of State Services (DSS) headquarters in Abuja supposedly for sharing the ‘inciting’ information online.
He was then granted bail in less than 24 hours following the intervention of his attorney, Mark Jacob.
‘He (Audu Maikori) is going to be prosecuted. He was arrested. His statement has been taken. His fate will be decided by a judge,’ Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai said while speaking at the Social Media Week in Lagos on March 2, 2017.
El-Rufai explained further: ‘Audu Maikori rushed to publish a false story without checking with anyone. But before then, he had been posting fake pictures by posting Boko Haram attacks, Rwanda genocide as southern Kaduna killings which elicited a lot of emotions on social media.
‘But more than that, what he posted may have led to killings and we are trying to link the dates of the posting to attacks that may have happened the next day on Fulanis and if we are able to establish that causation, as lawyers, we know what it means. It is totally irresponsible to do that.’
According to the Kaduna State governor, what Audu did was ‘totally and completely irresponsible’, and they expect him to pay for it.
Now that a magistrate in Kaduna has issued a warrant for the arrest of the entertainment mogul, Nigerian awaits the next phase.
What happens if Audu Maikori is found guilty of inciting discrimination?
A Lagos-based lawyer, Adigun Bankole whom we spoke with, said such an offence is punishable for seven years imprisonment ‘ab initio’, strictly under criminal code laws of the federation.
The lawyer added: ‘Anyone charged with such an offense and found guilty is liable for seven years imprisonment except in a situation where the court deems fit otherwise. This happens under special circumstances.’
#FreeAudu is now a trending topic in Nigeria again, as friends of Maikori, colleagues, and fans call for his freedom.
Audu Maikori is the boss at Chocolate City, which houses Nigerian entertainers including, M.I Abaga, Femi Kuti, Ice Prince, Jesse Jagz, Dice Ailes, Koker, Ruby Gyang, DJ Lambo, and Loose Kaynon.
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