Businessman Yakubu Numan, sentenced to jail for calling Governor Fintiri a thief

A Yola Chief Magistrate Court II, presided over by Magistrate Japhet Basani, has sentenced a Numan-based businessman, Ali Yakubu Numan, to two-and-a-half-year jail term for calling Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri ‘Father of all thieves.’

Numan was sentenced on Wednesday to two-year jail term with option of N50,000 fine for using abusive language against Fintiri. He was also sentenced to six-month imprisonment without option of fine for disturbance of public peace.

NewsWireNGR gathered that Numan had, in July 2021, written and published 6 different statements in Hausa and Fulfulde languages on his Facebook page against the governor.

He described Governor Fintiri in the publication as “a thief and father of all thieves in Nigeria” who stole indomie, spaghetti and hundreds of billions of naira from state coffers.

Earlier, counsels to the complainant, A. M. Iliyasu and M.A. Adamu, had called two witnesses who testified in court and tendered confessional statements in both English and Hausa languages respectively, among other exhibits.

On his part, counsel to the defendant and now convict, R. N. Agav, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy, informing the court that his client was a first-time offender