According to a Daily Nigerian report, the embattled former Kano State Commissioner of Works, Muaz Magaji, who was arrested in Abuja and flown to Kano, was arrested for severally refusing to honor invitations by the Kano State Police Command in respect to a complain for defamation of character formally laid before the command by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje through his solicitors.
A copy of the formal complaint letter seen and published by DAILY NIGERIAN read in part:
“We are Solicitors to the Executive Governor of Kano State, His Excellency, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (hereinafter referred to as “our client”) and on whose behalf we write to directly complain against Muaz Magaji (hereinafter referred to as “the suspect”) for the commission of the grievous offences of Criminal Defamation of Character, Assault, Intentional Insult with the Intent to Provoke Breach of Peace and Inciting Disturbance and Disaffection contrary to inter-alia the provisions of Sections 114, 264 and 399 of the Penal Code Law in force in Kano State, meted on our client.”
“As a foundation to our client’s complaint, we are instructed by our client that the suspect posted a picture portraying our client as an immoral and ungodly man engaged in an extra-marital affair with a strange woman whose face appeared in the said picture. We are instructed by our client that the said picture had been widely circulated by the suspect 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.” End of quote
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When reports of Magaji’s arrest were first published by some online magazines, I was annoyed; thinking it’s one of those informal Gestapo options desperate politicians adopt to silence irritating opponents. I was quite worried that Nigeria May be sliding back into the dark days of politics of cudgels and machetes and personalization of and politicization of state instruments by politicians in power to resolve political issues. I’m truly relieved to learn the arrest is a normal police operation approved based on fairly assessed inconvenient circumstances.
It’s quite commendable that Governor Ganduje actually relied on the judicial option to seek redress in matters like this. On the hand, it’s very wrong for Engr. Muaz Magaji to publish and circulate libelous contents against Governor Ganduje only to refuse invitations by the police to respond to a complaint by the victim of his publications. We have to agree, regardless of one’s estimation of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, he is the Governor of Kano state and no doubt, need some level of respectability to upload his responsibilities. And, when one decides to deny or strip him of his respectability, one should come fully prepared to defend contents put forward for the project.
In any case, what better chance could Magaji get to prove what he published against Ganduje than to honor the invitation by the police where he could put his proof on the table, walk out and drive safely home; may be even making a stop-over at any of FM stations to tell the public about the encounter! It’s cowardly to drag someone’s respectability in the mud only to start playing hide and seek when it’s time to substantiate the deed.
That we have a penchant to always side with the seemingly weak against the seemingly powerful in cases like this is something common and almost generally approved. Perhaps, this may explain why most people in power choose to do it the informal Gestapo way when faced with such challenges because they are certain the pendulum of court of public opinion will swing against. Whatever, we have a duty to have it ingrained in us that justice and fairness are not exclusive rights of the weak. The powerful are also deserving of public fairness and justice. We can only deny them justice and fairness at our own peril. When we deny them justice and fairness, certainly we will get injustice and unfairness in return.
Maiwada Danmalam is a public affairs commentator
