LAUTECH Student Arrested For Creating Goodluck Jonathan’s Parody Twitter Account Released After 82 Days In Detention
Olusola Babatunde, a final year student of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Oyo state, who was arrested for creating a parody Twitter account of former President Goodluck Jonathan, has been released after spending 82 days in detention.
He was arrested on May 23, 2020 allegedly on the orders of Goodluck Jonathan and was detained at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Abuja, for opening and operating a parody Twitter account of the former president.
A parody account is a type of profile on social media that is named after popular persons and used mainly for comic purposes.
Twitter permits parody accounts on the condition that the operator of the account indicates this on the profile page, which Olusola did, and that it is not used to perpetuate fraudulent activities.
Babatunde after his arrest was arraigned for impersonation and contravening the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act of 2015.
His bail was fixed at N500,000 with a civil servant of not less than level 15 expected to stand as his surety.
He however could not meet the conditions and was allegedly denied access to his lawyers while in detention.
In the new development, media personality and Convener of #RevolutionNow protest, Omoyele Sowore announced his release via Twitter on Tuesday, August 11.
He tweeted;
Shola has just been released from police detention in Abuja after more than 2 months for creating a parody account in the name of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan. The former president has also agreed to discontinue the bogus criminal trial. Thanks to all!
#FreeShola has just been released from @PoliceNG detention in Abuja after more than 2 months for creating a parody account in the name of ex-President @GEJonathan, the former Pres. has also agreed to discontinue the bogus criminal trial. G-thanks to all! #RevolutionNow pic.twitter.com/Q73zVf4k97
— Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) August 11, 2020
Speaking to journalists shortly after he was released, Babatunde said several suspects were cramped up in small cells in contravention of the COVID-19 guidelines.
He, however, said he was never tortured by policemen and was fed twice a day like other suspects.
Recounting his experience while in detention, Babatunde said;
It wasn’t easy. I spent 82 days in detention, and I was transferred to three different cells. I wore the same clothes for 82 days.
There was no social distancing in detention. I guess the people in the cells are exceptional. It is like COVID-19 doesn’t infect them and this is despite the fact that new suspects are brought in every day without testing.
He expressed;
However, we had an incident just once. There was a Chinese man who was a gold miner who fell ill. He was taken to a hospital and tested positive for COVID-19, so he was hurriedly released.
He was in the Force Intelligence Bureau department so only the suspects in that cell were tested. We were all at risk of getting infected with COVID-19.
The LAUTECH student expressed disappointment that he was arrested despite being one of Goodluck Jonathan‘s biggest supporters.
Olusola added;
The funny thing is that I even tweeted good things about Goodluck Jonathan a few weeks before my arrest. I said Jonathan’s administration was better than that of the current president. So, I was shocked but this is Nigeria.
When asked if he was still a fan of Jonathan, Babatunde responded laughingly, “May God help us.”
Narrating how he was arrested, the young man who is an orphan said his uncle called him that policemen wanted to see him.
Babatunde said on getting to his uncle’s house, the police arrested him and did not reveal to him the reason for his arrest.
