A Federal High Court, Abuja, has denied an Abia State-based pharmacist bail 17 months after making a ‘joke’ about eliminating the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd).
Solomon Akuma who in the same tweet supposedly joked about killing Buhari’s late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, is charged with terrorism, sedition, criminal intimidation and threat to the president’s life.
The 29-year-old pharmacist made the expensive joke on March 10, 2020, while responding to a tweet by Tunde Omotoye, a Canada-based Nigerian, asking what people would do with $1 million.
Akuma – a pharmacy intern with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control until his arrest on April 2, 2020, seemingly joked about paying a Russian sniper to eliminate Buhari and Kyari, in his response to the tweet.
“Pay a Russian sniper to eliminate Buhari and Abba Kyari,” his tweet read.
About 11 months after his arrest, Buhari’s Personal Assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, debunked a report by Sahara Reporters suggesting that Akuma was arrested for criticising Buhari.
Akuma … publicly said that he’d pay an assassin to kill the President and late CoS. We all ought to know, there is a price for that.
Bashir Ahmad
However, FIJ reported that Akuma appeared in court on Monday, September 27, only to have his case adjourned by four weeks until November 22, 2021.
Reacting, a friend of his simply identified as Shola said, “The police have done their investigations and seen he doesn’t have the capability to carry out the threat.
“But this is an insane country where oppression has been normalised.”
