Eminent Nigerians call for unconditional release of Audu Maikori

Stakeholders in Nigeria’s economy, human rights activists as well as the entertainment exponents across the globe have called for unconditional release of Audu Maikori, Nigeria’s entertainment icon and Chief Executive Officer, Chocolate city entertainment.

On Friday, 17 February, 2017, Audu was arrested in Lagos on the warrant of a Magistrate court in Kaduna. His arrest was confirmed by the police the following day and he was released on bail having passed the night in their custody in Abuja.

Audu Maikori has been placed under immense pressure, attack and traumatizing court arraignments ostensibly based on his humanitarian campaign against unwarranted killings in Southern Kaduna, Kaduna state Nigeria, and has apologized for any mistake in the course of his duty.

A cross section of global opinion moulders, including Mr.Chidi Odinkalu, former Chairman of National Human Rights Commission; Mr. Mbasekei Martin Obono, ‎Executive Director at CAFA Foundation, a cybercrimes and Fraud Prevention Foundation, among others joined forces with global icons to demand for Maikori’s unconditional release.

“They should immediately release him because he had apologized for the tweets and I don’t think the matter is a criminal offence that warrants him being locked up for so many days,” Mr. Odinkalu told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone.

Mbasekei Martin Obono, ‎Executive Director at CAFA Foundation, a cybercrimes and Fraud Prevention Foundation; who joined forces with call for release of Maikori, in a recent publication titled “Why Audu Maikori May Get the Abacha Treatment from El-Rufai” , said that Maikori means well for Nigerians, Southern Kaduna people and the oppressed people of the world and should not be subjected to inhuman practices in a democratic country and as a human being could make mistakes, and also apologize for such, which he may have done.

He said that Audu Maikori, the CEO of Chocolate City, who has been at the forefront of the campaign against the killings in Southern Kaduna, is a global citizen whose credibility could be attested to world over.

“In a series of tweets in February, Audu alleged that some students of Kaduna State College of Education in Gidan-Waya, near Kafanchan, were killed by herdsmen on 22 January, 2017. This information, he insisted, was acquired from his driver and came at a time when tales of incessant killings were rife in Southern Kaduna. The school, however, denied these allegations and a formal statement was released by the state government vowing to prosecute rumor peddlers. After further inquiry and investigations, Audu retracted his tweets and apologized,” Obono said.

He, however, appealed to the Kaduna State governor, Mallam El-Rufai, to extend his magnanimity to the entertainment guru who also means well for the citizens of Kaduna state, by ensuring his unconditional release.