DSS arraigns Mubarak Abdullahi over a fake Tinubu letter to the US President, with the suspect remanded in a Kaduna correctional centre

The Department of State Services (DSS) has filed a three-count charge against Mubarak Abdullahi, also known as Sardaunan Samari, over his alleged circulation of a fake letter purportedly written by President Bola Tinubu and addressed to the President of the United States.

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The charges, which border on alleged cybercrime and defamation, were filed at the Federal High Court in Kaduna, according to a statement by Bayo Onanuga, the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy.

Onanuga said Abdullahi was arrested on September 28 after allegedly sharing the document on his Facebook page with the caption, “ATIKU IS COMING.”

The presidential aide disclosed in a post on X late Monday that the suspect was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Court No. 10 in Kabala Doki, Kaduna, which ordered his remand at the Nigerian Correctional Centre in Kaduna.

Onanuga said Abdullahi admitted to investigators that he had shared the document and apologised for his actions.

However, the presidential aide said the apology did not prevent the authorities from pursuing the case.

He added that the DSS had filed a three-count charge against Abdullahi at the Federal High Court in Kaduna, although a date for his formal arraignment before the court had yet to be fixed as of the time of the report.

Onanuga also said the security agency would continue to demonstrate its capacity to identify and trace people involved in circulating misleading information online.

The report described Abdullahi as a supporter of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Neither Atiku nor his media aide, Phrank Shaibu, had publicly reacted to the reported arrest as of the time of publication.

Human rights activist Omoyele Sowore, meanwhile, criticised the arrest, accusing the government of using the DSS to suppress dissenting voices.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Sowore questioned the deployment of a national security agency to arrest a citizen over a document shared online.

“How on earth do you reduce a national security agency like the #OfficialDSSNG to a mere vacuum cleaner, deployed to sweep up dissenting voices in your inordinate ambition to subdue every citizen simply because you are afraid to face the Nigerian people and account for your disastrous reign?” he wrote.

Sowore described the arrest as troubling and warned that public officials would eventually be held accountable for their actions.

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The case follows the alleged circulation of a document presented as correspondence between Tinubu and the US President. The allegations against Abdullahi remain subject to judicial proceedings.