It’s obviously not yet uhuru for Chocolate City Records founder, Audu Maikori.
The lawyer cum showbiz entrepreneur who was arrested and later released by the DSS some days back, according to the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, should not consider himself a totally free man yet. He disclosed this on Friday, March 3, 2017 at the Social Media Week which took place at the Landmark Event Centre in Lekki, Lagos.
Maikori, it would be recalled, was arrested in Lagos, then moved to Abuja, where State Security operatives quizzed him over his post on alleged killings in Southern Kaduna which eventually turned out to be false.
Admitting that he was misled by his driver who claimed to have lost a brother at the College of Education in Kaduna, Maikori equally apologized upon finding out that he had been sold a dummy. But according to el-Rufai, the bearded gentleman who is in his 40s persisted, and even after being warned.
Hear the no-nonsense former Minister of The Federal Capital Territory:
“Audu Maikori rushed to publish a false story without checking with anyone. But before then, he had been posting fake pictures by posting Boko Haram attacks, Rwanda genocide as Southern Kaduna killings which elicited a lot of emotions on social media…
“But more than that, what he posted may have led to killings and we are trying to link the dates of the posting to attacks that may have happened the next day on Fulanis and if we are able to establish that causation, as lawyers, we know what it means. It is totally irresponsible to do that…
“And even when pointed out to him that this information is not true that the College of Education does not run a mass communication programme and that the school had been closed down since November, he still posted that he stands by his story…
“He questioned the authenticity of the press statement. He was totally and completely irresponsible. He is going to be prosecuted. He was arrested. His statement has been taken. A judge will decide his fate. It’s not Nasir el-Rufai and it’s nothing personal. I have nothing against him. He has worked with the state government in the past…
“Since we started going after people that are posting these fake pictures, we have had some sense of moderation. You cannot rush and use a platform like that without checking because there are two sides to this conflict because anything you post can elicit a reaction from one of the sides…
“So, we should at least be sure that what we are posting is true. And there are ways of checking, call the police or other authorities. You are rushing to get re-tweets and followings without regards to the fact that what you are doing could lead to more violence or loss of lives…
“I am the governor of the state. I am not in this game to get following. My responsibility as governor of the state is to ensure the security of lives and property of the state and I will not allow anyone, even my own son, to do that kind of thing without consequence.”