Abubakar Sidiq Usman |
A prominent news blogger
in Nigeria has been freed on bail following his arrest on Monday for
"offences bordering on cyber-stalking".
Media report continues:
Abubakar
Sidiq Usman's arrest by the anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), was widely condemned in Nigeria.
His
supporters launched a #FreeAbusidiq campaign on Twitter.
Last
week, Mr Usman published allegations that EFCC acting chairman Ibrahim Magu was
bullying his staff.
Mr
Magu has not yet commented on the allegation.
An
EFCC spokesman confirmed to the BBC that Mr Usman had been released on bail.
Mr
Usman was grateful to Nigerians for speaking out against his detention of more
than 36 hours, his lawyer Michael Bello told Premium Times newspaper.
His
bail conditions required him to "make himself available to the EFCC
whenever he received an invitation".
Mr
Usman is an extremely popular blogger and a strong backer of President
Muhammadu Buhari.
He
is also a founding member of the youth wing of the governing All Progressives
Congress (APC).
In
a statement posted on its
Facebook account after he was detained, the APC youth wing said he was
being held on "spurious charges".
The
EFCC was formed to investigate financial crimes and had overstepped its
jurisdiction by detaining him, it said.
Mr Usman is the third blogger to be arrested in Nigeria since the Cyber Crime Act came into force in 2015, the Premium Times reported.
No comments:
Post a Comment