[News] Businessman bags 30 months jail term for calling Adamawa Governor ‘father of all thieves’

An Adamawa businessman has been sentenced to 30 months in jail insulting the State Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.

 

Ali Yakubu Numan had taken to Facebook on different days in July 2021 to criticize the Adamawa State Governor. In one post, he described Gov Finitri as “a thief and father of all thieves in Nigeria” who stole hundreds of billions of Naira from state coffers.

 

Numan was then arraigned for defamation by the Attorney General of Adamawa State.

 

On Wednesday, August 12, a Yola Chief Magistrate Court II, presided over by Magistrate Japhet Basani, convicted the businessman and sentenced him to two and a half years in prison with the option of N50,000 fine for using abusive language against Fintiri.

 

He was also sentenced to six-month imprisonment without the option of fine for disturbance of public peace.

 

In ruling on the case on Wednesday, Magistrate Basani said that the court arrived at the verdict after it found the man guilty of the two charges brought against him by the prosecution.