The Yobe State coordinator of the Take-It-Back Movement (TIB), Abubakar Jawa, was arrested by security agents on Monday while converging ahead of planned protests demanding the immediate repeal of the controversial Cybercrime Act.
TIB organised the protest to raise awareness about the implications of the law.
Jawa was arrested alongside four others: Mohammed Kayeri Adam, Suleiman A. Gambo, Maimuna Abba, and Abubakar Jawa. While the specific reasons for their arrest remain unclear, the incident has attracted significant attention in the state.
SaharaReporters gathered that the arrest was made while they were gathering at a designated location for Monday’s protest against the Cybercrime Act.
When SaharaReporters contacted the state’s Police Public Relations Officer, Dungus Abdulkarim, he denied the arrest of any protesters or TIB movement members by the police.
He added that police have been calling for any of their members or coordinators to come out as the police were willing to provide backing ahead of the protest.
“As far as the police are concerned, we don’t know any TIB movement coordinator or members in the state and we have made our doors open for any members or coordinator to come out and be identified with police so that police can provide security backing ahead of the protest. But we are yet to see anyone. So police have not arrested a TIB member or its coordinator.”
On Sunday, SaharaReporters reported that the Department of State Services (DSS) in Osun State had invited Olasunkanmi Mary Oluwatosin, the Organising Secretary of the state chapter of the Take It Back (TIB) Movement, for questioning over the planned nationwide protest on April 7.
The Take-It-Back Movement had insisted that there was no going back on the scheduled nationwide protest set for Monday.
According to the group, the aim of the protest is to address the “authoritarianism of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, abuse of human rights, and the misuse of the Cybercrime Act.”
The protest is tagged: “Nationwide Protest Against Bad Governance and Suppression of Free Speech.”
However, a DSS official identified as Akin summoned Oluwatosin to the DSS office in Osogbo, the state capital, via a WhatsApp text message.
Oluwatosin told SaharaReporters on Sunday that the DSS operative called her on Saturday, requesting details about the planned protest.
She added that another unidentified number contacted her on Sunday, summoning her to the DSS office for a “chat.”
© SaharaReporters