ADC seeks Zulum explanation over video linked to protest slogan

The African Democratic Congress Presidential Campaign Council has asked Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum to explain a circulating video allegedly showing him threatening to arrest people using the slogan “Tinubu Must Go”. Phrank Shaibu, the council’s director of strategic communications, made the request in a statement on Sunday. He said the remarks attributed to Zulum appeared inconsistent with the governor’s recent denial that he ordered the arrest of people wearing shirts bearing the slogan.

The supplied report said PREMIUM TIMES had not independently established when or where the footage was recorded, or the full context of the governor’s remarks. The video, posted on X, purportedly shows Zulum speaking in Hausa. Zulum previously said he was unaware of the detention of men arrested in Maiduguri and had never directed the arrest of opposition supporters or critics of his administration.

The ADC asked him to reconcile that position with the new footage. The campaign council said opposition to a president, expressed through slogans or clothing, should not by itself justify arrest. It said authorities should prosecute people for any separate offence on its own evidence rather than punish political expression.

The dispute follows the arrest of five men in Maiduguri on September 25. They were charged with criminal conspiracy, inciting disturbance, disturbing public peace and thuggery. Police alleged that they conspired to print shirts bearing the slogan to cause a breach of public peace.

Police later said officers encountered the men during a routine patrol and recovered items including suspected cannabis, tablets suspected to be D5, a shisha pot, scissors and two shirts. The command said the arrests were not motivated by political views and that the court should assess the evidence. Zulum subsequently distanced himself from the arrests and said opposition supporters could express their views within the law.