Abdul Aminu Mahmud, an Abuja-based human rights lawyer, has claimed that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) planned to investigate him in 2023 because they suspected he was behind two X accounts: @PIDOMNigeria and @chiditweets042.
The police in Nasarawa State invited Mahmud for questioning on June 27, 2023. When he got to the police station on Abacha Road, Mararaba, they placed him under arrest.
Describing the reason for the police’s interest in him, he said via X at the time, “Police have taken the intimidation of citizens too far. Because I defended ordinary citizens intimidated by ACP Zara Muhammed on Sunday in Karu, officers led by Inspector Sola Olalekan have arrested me in my own home. Heading to the station at Abacha Road, Mararaba.”
On Wednesday morning, the lawyer wrote further about the incident and said during his time with the police, he learnt they were making plans to investigate allegations of his links to the two handles.
He referred to the PIDOM handle and @Bluewallng, an account run by Isaac Bristol, the man the NPF abducted in Rivers State on August 5. Bristol is facing terrorism charges as the police currently believe he — and not Mahmud — is PIDOM.
Mahmud said, “I’m not amused by the PIDOM/bluewallng saga. There’s something about anonymous bellringers (not whistleblowers) on X that makes me think that agent provocateur is at work.”
Although the police arrested Mahmud in June, the matter stretched into September when he learnt of the plot to involve the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL).
Mahmud’s deal
“September 2023, the police at FCID alleged that I was behind PIDOM and Chiditweets handles and even secured an order from the magistrate in Masaka, Nasarawa State compelling INTERPOL to investigate my X handle,” he said on Wednesday.
“I told the officers that my prosaic and linguistic styles are inimitable —that only an illiterate could accuse me of running handles distinct from mine. I’m not a bellringer; I’m not a compulsive self-publicist; I’ve never been anonymous all my life.
“I left the FCID convinced that these handles are parts of the deep state’s politics of fostering disunity.”
READ ALSO: What Next for @PIDOMNigeria Now that Isaac Bristol Is Free?
In an interview with FIJ on Wednesday, Mahmud added that ACP Muhammed filed a petition against him at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) in Abuja, alleging he was threatening and cyberbullying her.
Mahmud explained that before he honoured the police invitation, he got news of the potential INTERPOL involvement.
“A high-ranking officer hinted to me that the police had secured a warrant against me and an order compelling INTERPOL to investigate my X handles. The order was granted by the magistrate in Masaka, Nasarawa State,” Mahmud explained.
“During my interrogation, the police confronted me with the allegation of running PIDOM and one Chidi’s handles, an allegation I dismissed outright. I told them it was procedurally stupid to ask me questions on a subject I was not invited over. They gave me their case file to place underneath the statement sheets I was asked to write on.
“These officers left me with the case file in the interrogation room to luxuriate elsewhere, and there I was reading the falsehoods they filed as affidavits at the magistrate court, confirming what a senior officer had hinted at a few days earlier.”
FIJ texted Muyiwa Adejobi, Force Public Relations Officer, for comments, and he said he would find out about the matter.
FIJ also spoke to Chidi and Bristol on the phone; both men denied affiliations to Mahmud or the government on Wednesday.
Chidi said, “I’d love to ask him how he came to that conclusion. State politics of fostering disunity? I am shocked but calm.”
Bristol said, “I will tell my story in a few days. The government still has a case against me, so how can I be working for them?”
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