Police charge five men over ‘Tinubu Must Go’ T-shirts

The Nigeria Police Force in Borno State has charged five men to court after arresting them for allegedly wearing T-shirts bearing the inscription, “Tinubu Must Go.”

The five men are Baba Aji Gremami, Mustapha Abba Yemen, Abacha Mohammed Ali, Adam Umar Gubio and Abdulhamid Mohammed.

According to charges seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the men were accused of criminal conspiracy, inciting disturbance, disturbance of public peace and thuggery.

The charges alleged that the five men “conspired together by printing some T-shirts with some inscription written Tinubu Must Go on it, with the intent to cause breach of public peace within the West End Roundabout Community.”

The alleged offences were said to be contrary to Sections 60, 78, 79 and 392 of the Borno State Penal Code Law.

Rights group Amnesty International, in a statement, condemned the arbitrary detention of the five men, arguing that wearing a T-shirt expressing political opposition does not constitute a crime.

“Hurriedly remanding them in prison and accusing them bizarrely of ‘the intent to cause breach of public peace within West End Roundabout Community Maiduguri’ simply for wearing a t-shirt with a message of political dissent is not a crime,” the rights group said.

It called on the authorities to release the men and drop the charges against them.

“Authorities in Borno state have resorted to the familiar playbook of using the law to criminalize peaceful dissent and silence opposition,” Amnesty International said.

The organisation also accused the Borno State Government and the police of increasingly targeting opposition parties and their supporters through arrests and detentions.

It urged the government of Governor Babagana Zulum to respect freedom of expression and association and uphold the rule of law.

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“Political opposition is part of human rights,” Amnesty International said, adding that the right to express political opinions should not be limited to supporters of one political party.

The Borno State Police Command has not issued an official statement on the alleged arrests and charges.

PREMIUM TIMES contacted the police spokesperson in Borno, Nahum Daso, for comment. Mr Daso did not answer calls to his phone and has not responded to a text message sent to him as of the time of this report.