A former Politics Editor with Daily Trust, Ibrahim Dan-Halilu has again been arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) in Kaduna State.
This came barely 24 hours after he was released following an initial arrest.
Dan-Halilu was arrested on Sunday for supporting the #RevolutionNow movement led by SaharaReporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore.
A source close to the journalist said, “Dan-Halilu was arrested on Sunday and then released on Tuesday. However, on Wednesday, the DSS guys picked him up again, saying they had been given orders from Abuja to detain him.”
Dan-Halilu had in a post on Facebook lamented the spate of killings, the high rate of poverty, the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint persons with questionable character as ministers and the inability of the government to satisfactorily account for the manner in which the recovered $320m Abacha loot was spent, among others.
The post read in part, “Somebody asked me why we need a revolution now, this was my reply: The aim of the revolution is to challenge the uncommon hardship, why we have 16 million children on the street; challenge why we have become the poverty capital of the world; challenge why we have 20 persons with corrupt cases as federal legislators and would-be ministers.”
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Meanwhile, the Lagos State judiciary has exonerated itself from a report indicting it of asking magistrates in the state not to grant bail to protesters of the #RevolutionNow movement.
This was contained in a statement on Wednesday by the chief registrar, Olukayode Ogunjobi, stating that it did not instruct Magistrate A.O. Komolafe of the Ebute Meta Magistrates’ Court, in whose court some of the #RevolutionNow protesters were arraigned, to refuse the defendants bail.
“The fulfilment of bail conditions is purely at the instance of the defendants after the court has stated the conditions and in this particular case, the defendants are in the process of complying with the bail conditions,” the statement said.
Online medium, SaharaReporters, had reported that the Lagos State court authorities had instructed Komolafe not to approve the bail of the #RevolutionNow protesters, but to transfer them to the Kirikiri Prison for the time being.