EFCC Arrest Blogger Over Anti-Magu Story

EFCC Arrest Blogger Over Anti-Magu Story

Popular blogger, Mr. Abubakar Sidiqu Usman, otherwise known as Abusidiqu, has been arrested by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over a critical report he published against the graft agency’s Chairman, Ibrahim Magu.

Punch reports that a team of stern looking and heavily armed operatives of the Commission led by one Sambo M. Mangana stormed the private residence of the blogger in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja with a search warrant and whisked him away after they had ransacked his house.

Confirming the arrest, spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said the blogger was arrested for cyber stalking.

“The EFCC today arrested Mr. Abubakar Sidiq Usman, a blogger, for offences bordering on cyber stalking,” Uwujaren said in a statement.

“The suspect who is the publisher of Abusidiqu.com was picked up at his Kubwa, Abuja home in the early hours of Monday August 8, 2016 by operatives of the EFCC and is currently being questioned over the alleged offence which contravenes sections of the Cyber Crime Act.

“The suspect has already been offered administrative bail and would be released to his elected sureties.”

Usman’s present travail follows a report published August 2, 2016 on his blog Abusidiqu.com, titled, “EFCC boss, Magu, commences total war with core EFCC staff,” where accused Magu of bullying his staff and being jittery over the delay in his confirmation by the senate.

The report also accused the acting chief of the anti-graft agency of being guilty of corruption which he professes to fight.

Cyber stalking can be defined as the repeated use of electronic communications to harass or frighten someone through threatening emails or spreading false messages online, and this raises concerns over the EFCC’s actions as the blogger hasn’t been accused of financial or economic crime which lies within the jurisdiction of the commission.

The pervading sentiment in Nigeria’s twitter-sphere is that Mr Magu should know to seek redress in a court of law if he considered the publication scandalous, rather than act like a law unto himself as seems to be the case here.

The commando-style manner in which the blogger was whisked away echoes the dark days of military dictatorship, and Nigerians are not taking this lying down as the hashtag #FreeAbuSidiq is already trending.