Tambari Hausa TV
Ms Rukayya Aliyu-Jibia, a journalist who works for a Katsina-based Hausa language television station, Tambari Hausa TV, has gone into hiding and raised alarm over an alleged threat to her life. Ms Aliyu-Jibia had earlier been arrested for what the police described as seeking “cheap popularity” on Tiktok and later released.
She disclosed that she was arrested for criticising the police public parade of four girls allegedly arrested for prostitution on her personal Tiktok account.
Rukkayya had earlier been arrested for what the police described as seeking “cheap popularity” on Tiktok and later released. She disclosed that she was arrested for criticising the police public parade of four girls allegedly arrested for prostitution on her personal Tiktok account.
The journalist said: “… the Nigerian Police, Katsina State Command, paraded four suspects, young ladies between the ages of 19 to 23, claiming that they were into prostitution. Upon seeing that video, I recorded a TikTok video on my personal TikTok page, where I quoted a section in Nigerian Constitution which I suggested to the police that they should have taken the girls to the court until they are proven guilty before parading them to the press,”
Narrating her ordeal, she said after the video was published, Mr. Gambo Isa, the police spokesperson in the state, invited her to the Katsina Emir’s palace.
She said “I was on my way to the emir’s palace when Gambo Isah and his boys came with four cars, blocked my way, they dragged me out of my car, and they broke my phone and I sustained injury as you can see, and they dragged me to the emir’s palace where Gambo Isa told the emir that I’m sabotaging their efforts in the state.”
Rukayya said the emir ordered the police to remand her in detention but that when she was taken to court to be arraigned, the judge was absent. She said she was later taken to the police area commander’s office and asked to write a statement and thereafter released and asked to report back the following day.
According to her, she reported back at the police station as she was asked at about 11:00 am hoping to be taken to court. She said the area commander however informed her that she would be taken to police headquarter. She said: “I was so scared of what happened to me the other day. Gambo Isa assaulted me, so I ran for my life.”
Contacted, Mr Gambo Isah said the journalist was seeking cheap popularity through her Tiktok videos. He claimed that she had been using her Tiktok account since 2022 to attack the police activities in the state. He also debunked the allegation that police are trying to arrest her, saying she had been granted bail to a surety.
