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A former Commissioner of works in Kano state , Muaz Magaji has been remanded in police custody for allegedly posting pictures of the governor with strange women.
PLATFORM TIMES gathered that the former commissioner was docked at a magistrate’s Court sitting at Nomansland area of Kano, on Friday, in an attempt to allegedly defame him.
The former Commissioner was apprehended by police in the state following a direct criminal complaint filed by the state Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje against his ex-commissioner-turned-critic.
Magaji had been accused of breach of peace, intentional insult and defamation of character.
PLATFORM TIMES further report that the acussed was reportedly arrested in Abuja after featuring as a guest on a political programme of Trust TV, on Thursday night.
The police spokesman in Kano, SP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, had earlier confirmed the former commissioner’s arrest ,saying, it was sequel to several complaints filed against him.
He said the former commissioner’s alleged refusal to honour police invitation triggered his arrest.
But later on Friday, it was gathered that Magaji had been taken before the magistrate’s court in Nomansland area of the state metropolis on the strength of the said complaints filed by the governor.
In the direct complaint filed before the court by the governor, the court was told Magaji “posted a picture portraying our client (Ganduje) as an immoral and ungodly man in an extra-marital affair with a strange woman whose face appeared in the said picture”.
The governor’s lawyer, Adekunle Taiye Falola, further stated that the said “picture had been widely circulated by the suspect (Magaji) on several social media platforms, in a brazen attempt to assassinate the character, goodwill, good name and image of our client, the first citizen of Kano state, which he built for several decades in civil service and in frontline politics in Nigeria”.
But the lawyer to Magaji told the court that his client would not be able to take his plea on the grounds that he had suffered temporary hearing loss following the manner in which he was arrested by the police in Abuja.
He urged the court to grant his client bail and allow him to be taken to his hospital for medical check-up.
In his ruling, however, the presiding judge, Aminu Gabari, ordered that Magaji be taken to police hospital and remanded in police custody.
The court thereafter adjourned the matter to January 31.
