An FCT Chief Magistrate Court on Friday, July 25, 2025, remanded a social media influencer, Ghali Isma’il, at the Keffi Correctional Centre.
Isma’il, who posted online videos purporting that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu died as a result of a serous illness was arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), days after he posted the fake videos on the TikTok handle @bola_asiwaju.
Count one of the two-count charge, titled “Publication of false news with intent to cause offence against public peace”, noted that Ghali Ismail, Male, 29 years of Jogana village, Gezawa Local Government Area, Kano State, on or about the July 20, 2025 and within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did publish false information by uploading a video clip on your verified Tiktok handle (“bola-asiwaju”) wherein you falsely claimed that you reliably confirmed from official sources that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was critically ill, having been poisoned through his meal, with intent to cause public alarm and disturb public peace.
“You thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 418 of the Penal Code Act, Cap P3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
Count two read; “Inciting Disaffection to the Government,” read that Ghali Ismail, Male, 29 years, of Jogana village, Gezawa LGA, Kano State, on or about July 20, 2025 and within the jurisdiction of the Court, did publish false information by uploading a video clip on his verified Tiktok handle (“bola-asiwaju”) wherein he falsely claimed that he reliably confirmed from official sources that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was critically ill, having been poisoned through his meal, with intent to bring contempt or incite feelings of disaffection against the person of the President.
The count two further stated; “You thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 416 of the Penal Code Act, Cap P3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004”.
After taking arguments by both counsels to the DSS and that of the defendant, whose application for bail was denied, the presiding judge, Ekpeyong Iyang, ordered Ismail to be remanded in Keffi Correctional Centre.
The trial Magistrate thereafter, adjourned the case till August 19, 2025.
Isma’il’s arraignment came a few days after a Journalism Professor at Kennesaw State University in the United States, Farooq Kperogi, apologized for publishing a false report that late President Muhammadu Buhari and his wife, Aisha, were divorced at the time of his death.
In the same vein, Biafrian agitator, Simon Ekpa, is currently being prosecuted by Finnish authorities for terrorism, even as Ekpa insisted that his icentary posts online were merely to create “content”.
Last week in Abuja, another Biafran separatist leader, Nnamdi Kanu, told a federal high court that his online broadcasts which prosecutors said led to the deaths of hundreds of persons, was a joke.
In Finland, prosecutors, who are demanding a six-year prison sentence for Mr Ekpa, his separatist activities, conducted online and coordinated from Finland, may constitute terrorism under Finnish law.
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