For How Long Would IGP Adamu Continue To Arrest and Investigate Mahdi?

By Maryam Musa

Even though sections of the media were reportedly influenced to downplay or not to report the story at all, it is no more news now that Kaduna base activist, whistleblower, business man and owner of Dialogue Group of Companies, Mahdi Shehu has been rearrested again on the orders of IGP Mohammed Adamu.

DESERT HERALD can also confirmed that his recent arrest as it is with the first one was prompted and facilitated by the Katsina State Government.

It would be recalled that between November and December 2020, Mahdi Shehu was arrested by the Police for twelve days. Through out the period of the first incarceration he was not charged to court and was eventually released on bail on self recognition despite his insistence to be taken to Court so that the court will determine his guilt or otherwise about the complaints against him by the government of Aminu Bello Masari, incumbent Governor of Katsina State.

Recalled also that the Katsina Government has before now instituted five different cases against Mr. Mahdi. Recalled also that IGP Adamu has also charged Mr. Mahdi before a Federal High Court, Katsina. It is also on record that Mr. Mahdi has been arraigned in absentia in the same Federal High Court in Katsina.

Under the Federal High Court Rules and under a Criminal Matter, it is prerequisite of law that the accused person must be serve with the Court process, must be serve his charges in person and must be arraigned but curiosly Mahdi was charged in absentia before Justice Hadiza Shagari of the Federal High Court, Katsina.

While the judge was fully aware that he was not serve with the Court process and the charges, while he was not arraigned, Justice Hadiza Shagari in her best of wisdom reportedly sat in court where Mahdi was supposedly arraigned in absentia, heard the case and adjourned it to 19th February, 2021.

This according to one of the lawyers of Mahdi, “is an insult to the National Judicial Commission, to the judiciary and it shows clearly that the trial judge is an interested party in the case especially with her relationship with the family of Alhaji Dahiru Mangal, Governor Masari and the Secretary to the State Government, SSG of Katsina State, Mr. Mustapha Inuwa.

This three factors make her an interested party in the case that was brought before her”.

Legal experts interviewed by DESERT HERALD on the highly intriguing matter were quick to asked that “with six cases on the same matter before various courts against Mr. Mahdi what reason did the IGP have to further detained him and without taking him to court? IGP Adamu has been telling different stories to different people.

But he should know that just like there was yesterday, tomorrow will come and it will pass. Every person will carry his own baggage. Mahdi must be presume to be innocent until proven otherwise by a court of competent jurisdiction.

Any other behind the scene intimidation or assault done to him will not change the story, will not change the narrative and the world is watching. Days are being counted and events are being documented for posterity”, one of the legal experts, Barr Samuel Suleiman lamented.

One of Mahdi’s brothers that doesn’t want his name in print told DESERT HERALD about the concern of his brother’s health condition since the first time he was arrested. “For the record, Mahdi is fighting corruption in high places particularly in his state of Katsina state.

It is the opinion of pundits that are privy to the ordeal of Mahdi that unless the nation and its citizens fight corruption to a standstill, corruption will destroy Nigeria.

More so as President Muhammadu Buhari had signed an Executive Order that each time people find and reported evidences of corruption should be rewarded and be protected. To many, Mr. Mahdi is not a commercial whistleblower.

He is doing it for the nation, for his state and that as a successful businessman he is not lacking in anything neither is he looking for anything apart from a decent life, the right to quality education, access to healthcare services etc for the people of his state. It is unfortunate that the body language of the federal government that looks away on Mahdi’s case is a clear demonstration of paying leaf service to fighting corruption.

They are not serious about fighting corruption. They have given enough room for the police to intimidate, arrest, insult and to detained illegally those that are sacrificing so much and took the fight as part of their civic, constitutional and moral responsibilities.

DESERT HERALD findings revealed that the current detention of Mahdi was not ordered by any court but on the orders, command, instructions and convenience of the IGP whose action according to Mahdi was influenced by Governor Masari, Dahiru Barau Mangal and SSG Mustapha Inuwa.

The Police spokesman as well as the Katsina SSG, Inuwa did not pick their calls when this reporter contacted him for comment regarding the recent arrest of the Chairman of Dialogue Group. As at the time of filling this report, the embattled Mahdi is spending his sixth day at the Force CID in Garki and has not been taken to Court.

Credible sources at Luis Edit House confided in this paper that the police have discovered during their investigation that all the copies of official documents on the alleged looting of Katsina state resources as revealed by Mr. Mahdi are all fake even as the Police and the Katsina Government are reluctant to allow law to determine that and preferred to engage in what many regarded as abuse of the rights of the accused.

They argued that if the police are sure of the outcome of their investigation why the desperation to detained him instead of going to the court to probe their case beyond reasonable doubts?