Chocolate City boss, Audu Maikori who was
arrested by the police on Friday – February 17th ,
has been released.
A Tweet by his colleague, M.I disclosed the
information on Saturday.
This is coming after a series of tweets by
Advocacy champion, Oby Ezekwesili .
Ezekwesili had said that she persuaded the
Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai to
facilitate Audu’s release after she discovered he
was arrested.
Audu was said to be arrested for publishing a
story on the killing of five students of College of
Education, Gidan-Waya , Kaduna.
Audu said that his driver related the story to him,
adding that the driver told him his (driver’s)
brother was among the victims. Turned out the
story was false; Audu apologised and retracted the
statement.
Read Ezekwesili’s tweets below:

Audu this apology helps as an entry
point to lessons of yesterday’s event
which I only caught up on very late
& my call to Governor of Kaduna
( Nasir El-Rufai ) today.
I urged the Governor of Kaduna
(Nasir El-Rufai) to get Audu out &
he replied that his policy of
Consequences was important for
stemming killings in
#SouthernKaduna .
(Nasir El-Rufai) stated that the
actions for which Audu apologized
inflamed the # SouthKaduna conflict
more & so the law taking its course.
I asked (Nasir El-Rufai) to consider
Audu’s apology and his unfortunate
arrest as a TEACHABLE MOMENT for
both the Government & everyone.
People already know how stridently I
insist on EVIDENCE-BASED
ADVOCACY. WE all must take a
LESSON from this. # LESSON
There’s no basis for a Govt clamp
down on Citizens’ FACT-BASED
advocacy on ANY ISSUE. So
Audu admitted he was WRONG.
Accept it (Nasir El-Rufai).
I told (Nasir El-Rufai) that it was
best to FREE Audu & use this as the
Govt’s POLICY MOMENT to get its
MESSAGE of CONSEQUENCES thru to
Public.

(Nasir El-Rufai) stated that he had
personally reached out asking Audu
to not post those particularly untrue
stories but he had continued.
I pressed on the NECESSITY for
(Nasir El-Rufai) to act to FREE
Audu and allow all sides to LEARN
the RIGHT LESSON from this painful
episode.
At the end of our discussion, (Nasir
El-Rufai) agreed to ACT and FREE
Audu quickly and end this
unfortunate development. WILL
WATCH OUT FOR IT.
(Nasir El-Rufai) had stated that
@Audu would be charged to court
on Monday. I urged that since he
already apologized, Police can
CAUTION & RELEASE.
Upon release today, I very much
hope that (Nasir El-Rufai) and
Audu can find points of
COLLABORATION on
#SouthernKaduna after this sad
episode.

All folks on the two sides of the
divide baying for blood really must
know that Nigeria CANNOT SURVIVE
a Religious War. Shield YOUR
SWORDS.
Soon, our Land SHALL SURELY be
HEALED of the TOXIN of HATE that
has become the medium of
communication and resolution of
disagreements.
All folks on the two sides of the
divide ba