On March 25, 2014 at about 3.30pm local time, Mr. Reuben Buhari, an Abuja correspondent with the Lagos-based daily newspaper, Thisday, was arrested in Kaduna, North-western Nigeria and taken to Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital for interrogation over photographs he posted on Facebook. At about 12.38pm local time, he sent an SMS to his colleagues saying “I have been invited to police headquarters again by the CP. Right now on my way.”
Buhari who was former media aide to late Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa of Kaduna State was initially arrested on March 19, 2014 and detained for about six hours before he was released after being made to sign an undertaking not to post more pictures because according to the Police, “they were inciting.”
He had posted gory photographs of the March 14, 2014 killings by Fulani herdsmen in Ungwar Sankwai, Ungwar Gata and Tekum villages in Kaura Local Government Council of the state on the wall of the Facebook group of Southern Kaduna people called Gurara Forum. He removed the said photographs following complaints from some members of the group.
The Kaduna State Police Commissioner, Alhaji Umar Shehu, said he arrested and took Buhari to the Force Headquarters, Abuja on the instructions of the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed D. Abubakar, for further investigations.
Buhari was detained for 19 hours and then released. He was asked to report back on March 28, 2014.
