A Chief Magistrate Court, on Friday in Abuja, remanded a social media influencer, Ghali Isma’il, at the Keffi Correctional Centre, who posted online videos purporting that President Bola Tinubu died as a result of a serious illness.
Department of State Services (DSS) operatives arrested Isma’il days after he posted the fake videos on the TikTok handle @bola_asiwaju.
He was charged on a two-count charge, it was gathered.
Count one of the two-count charge, titled “Publication of false news with intent to cause offence against public peace,” reads:
“That you, Ghali Ismail, Male, twenty-nine (29) years of Jogana village, Gezawa LGA, Kano State, on or about the 20th Day of July, 2025 and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, did publish false information by uploading a video clip on your verified TikTok handle (‘bola-asiwaju’) wherein you falsely claimed that you reliably confirmed from official sources that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was critically ill, having been poisoned through his meal, with intent to cause public alarm and disturb public peace.
You thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 418 of the Penal Code Act, Cap P3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
“That you, Ghali Ismail, Male, twenty-nine (29) years, of Jogana village, Gezawa LGA, Kano State, on or about the 20th Day of July, 2025 and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, did publish false information by uploading a video clip on your verified TikTok handle (‘bola-asiwaju’) wherein you falsely claimed that you reliably confirmed from official sources that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was critically ill, having been poisoned through his meal, with intent to bring contempt or incite feelings of disaffection against the person of the President.
You thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 416 of the Penal Code Act, Cap P3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
After taking arguments by both counsels to the DSS and that of the defendant, whose application for bail was denied, the presiding judge, Ekpeyong Iyang, ordered Isma’il to be remanded in Keffi Correctional Centre. The matter was adjourned till August 19.
Isma’il’s arraignment came a few days after a Journalism Professor at Kennesaw State University in the United States, Farooq Kperogi, apologised for publishing a false report that late President Muhammadu Buhari and his wife, Aisha, were divorced at the time of his death.
Biafran agitator, Simon Ekpa, is being prosecuted by Finnish authorities for terrorism. However, Ekpa insists that his incendiary posts online were merely to create “content.”
Last week in Abuja, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu, told a Federal High Court that his online broadcasts, which prosecutors said led to the deaths of hundreds of persons, were a joke.
In Finland, prosecutors, who are demanding a six-year prison sentence for Mr. Ekpa, say his separatist activities, conducted online and coordinated from Finland, may constitute terrorism under Finnish law.
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