By Ndahi Marama, Maiduguri
MAIDUGURI — The African Democratic Congress, ADC, in Borno State and the state police command have disagreed over the circumstances surrounding the arrest and prosecution of five youths linked to the “Tinubu Must Go” campaign.
The police said the five suspects were arrested over alleged public disturbance, thuggery and possession of suspected illicit drugs, while the ADC accused the command of giving a false account of the incident.
The controversy followed the arrest of the youths in Maiduguri and the subsequent discovery of two T-shirts bearing the inscription, “Tinubu Must Go.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the Borno State Police Command said the five suspects — Baba Aji Gremami, Mustapha Abba Yemen, Abacha Mohammed Ali, Adam Umar Gubio and Abdulhamid Mohammed — were arrested on September 25, 2026, at about 6pm during a routine patrol around the West End Roundabout in Maiduguri.
The command, through its spokesman, ASP Nahum Kenneth Daso, said the suspects were allegedly involved in conduct capable of causing public disturbance.
According to the police, the items recovered from them included 15 wraps of dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp, 100 tablets suspected to be D5, a shisha pot, a pair of scissors and two T-shirts bearing the “Tinubu Must Go” inscription.
The command said the suspects were subjected to preliminary investigation and their statements obtained before the case was charged to court.
However, the Borno State Chairman of the ADC, Kolo Bukar, rejected the police account, describing it as false and accusing the command of misrepresenting the circumstances surrounding the arrests.
Speaking with journalists on Wednesday, Bukar said only four of the arrested persons were members of the ADC, while the fifth person identified by the police was unknown to the party.
He said one of those arrested, Adam Umar Gubio, who he described as the leader and coordinator of the “Tinubu Must Go” movement and a supporter of the ADC, was among those detained.
According to Bukar, the group had obtained clearance from the police and the Department of State Services, DSS, to hold a peaceful gathering at the ADC secretariat around the West End Roundabout.
He alleged that the gathering was conducted peacefully and under the protection of security personnel, with participants wearing the “Tinubu Must Go” T-shirts.
The ADC chairman further claimed that the trouble started after the gathering when police officers arrested one of the party’s members, who had voluntarily gone with them to collect some of the T-shirts allegedly confiscated by the officers.
He said other members subsequently went to the police station to seek the release of their colleague but were also detained.
“It’s very shameful for the Nigerian police to say that those arrested were found with drugs and dangerous weapons. This is completely a lie. These people went to bail their colleague who was arrested by the police, and they were all subsequently detained,” Bukar said.
He maintained that the youths were exercising their right to peaceful assembly and insisted that the arrests were connected to the protest and not alleged possession of drugs or weapons.
The police, however, have maintained that the political messages on the T-shirts were not the basis for the arrests.
The command said the Nigeria Police Force was a professional and non-partisan institution and did not discriminate against persons on the basis of political affiliation or viewpoint.
It urged members of the public to rely on verified information and allow the court to determine the matter based on the facts and evidence presented before it.
The case has therefore produced competing accounts from the police and the ADC, with the judicial process now expected to determine the allegations against the five suspects.
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