A 25-year-old man, Halifa Garba, has been remanded in prison custody by a Kano Shariah Court after his employer, who allegedly made homosexual advances to him, accused him of defamation of character.
The judge, Mansur Bello of Kumbotso Upper Sharia Court, Kano, ordered the remand of Mr Garba for a week after rejecting application for his bail.
DAILY NIGERIAN gathered that Mr Garba’s travails began after his employment by Sa’idu Dogo-Maliya, popularly known as Dogo Me-mai, to work as his errand boy as well as a personal driver.
Narrating how the incidents happened, a human rights lawyer in Kano, Badamasi Gandu, told DAILY NIGERIAN that Mr Dogo-Maliya allegedly requested to have homosexual affair with him, an offer his client vehemently turned down.
Mr Gandu, who offered to provide free legal service to Mr Garba, added that in an effort to lure Mr Garba into the act, the businessman sent explicit pictures and videos depicting scenes of homosexuality to him via WhatsApp.
“He was even enticing Halifa that he would make him rich, take him to perform Umrah, among others. He then went further to send homosexual porn videos and pictures via WhatsApp.
“Halifa was very surprised at receiving the porn videos from his boss. He therefore replied to his boss with “Subhanallah” (an expression of surprise when something bad happened).
“After receiving Halifa’s “Subhanallah” reply, Dogo Maliya asked Halifa to delete the videos and pictures since he seemed to have rejected his request,” Mr Gandu said.
The lawyer also alleged that Mr Dogo-Maliya, fearing that the boy could expose him one day, hired thugs to kill his client.
According to Mr Gandu, one day Mr Garba was on his way home in a commercial tricycle, some men stopped them, poured petroleum on him and attempted to burn him alive.
According to the lawyer, after attempt to ignite fire failed, they however stabbed him on chest and thigh, with the intention of killing him.
“He was left him in the pool of his blood before some good Samaritans came to his rescue, and to God be the glory, he survived the attack,” he said.
The lawyer added that after noticing that his client had survived the “sponsored attack”, Mr Dogo-Maliya filed a complaint at Police Zone 1 in Kano, accusing the young man of defaming his character.
When invited, Mr Garba told the police that his boss had demanded to have homosexual affair with him but he refused.
He then told the police that he had videos and pictures as well as the screenshots of their conversation as evidence.
“But because of injustice, the police refused to accept these evidences and filed charges against the boy.
“Even before they invited us, the man [Dogo Me-Mai] met with the Shariah court judge and perfected a plan to send the boy to prison.
“We have evidence that Dogo Maliya held a private meeting with the judge. We objected to the police that the Kumbotso Upper Shariah Court will not be fair to us, and we have constitutional right to refuse to accept the case be taken to that court.
“Unfortunately, they insisted that the boy be taken to that particular court.
“This is sheer injustice as the court refused our bail application and went ahead to remand Halifa.
“Sadly, Halifa has been remanded with injuries inflicted on him by the thugs hired by Dogo Maliya. The boy is still nursing the injuries and that is how he has been sent to prison in this condition. I don’t know how he will get the wounds treated while in prison.
“This is injustice and we will not rest on our oars until we get justice for this poor boy,” the lawyer added.
