Posted by By AKIN ALOFETEKUN Minna on
Police authorities in Niger State said nothing incriminating was found in the residence of the detained Bida-based Islamic cleric, Alhaji Abubakar Bello Masaba, the man with 86 wives.
Police authorities in Niger State said nothing incriminating was found in the residence of the detained Bida-based Islamic cleric, Alhaji Abubakar Bello Masaba, the man with 86 wives.
Deputy Commisioner of Police, Mr. John Olayemi who disclosed this to journalists in Minna yesterday further disclosed that his arrest was carried out on the basis of alleged violation of the penal code.
Olayemi who led the search said police were made to believe that the octogenarian was keeping guns and other dangerous weapons in his house to suggest criminal acts on his part.
'Every part of the house was searched, but nothing incriminating was found. We arrested him not because he has committed any crime. The issue involved is that of religion. We used the instrument of the sharia court which called on the police to investigate him, especially as it relates to sections 210, 383, and 386 of the penal code to arrest him.
'We found nothing incriminating in his house. There was no knife, no pistol, no skull in his house when we went to invite him to the headquarters for a chat. We didn't find any cutlass or any dangerous weapon, that is the true position', Olayemi said.
Meanwhile, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Barrister Adamu Usman said no court has ordered the release of Pa Masaba, currently being detained in the Minna prisons.
Reacting to newspaper reports on the issue, Usman noted 'there was no such order of immediate release of Alhaji Bello Abubakar Masaba, rather the court ordered that the applicant (Masaba) be produced before the court on the 27th day of October, 2008, when the matter will come up for hearing'
'The court therefore ordered that a notice to that effect be issued to the Comptroller of Prisons, Minna where Bello Masaba is being detained on the order of Minna Upper Sharia Court.
'It is therefore not true that the federal high court Abuja has ordered for his release'
The Attorney-General in a press statement in Minna also disclosed that both the state government and the Comptroller of Prisons have again been served with another motion seeking for an order of Federal High Court, Minna to release him on bail pending the hearing before the sharia court.