Abusidiq was arrested for cyber stalking, says EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has given its reason for the arrest of Abubakar Sidiq, a blogger.

According to the anti-graft agency, Sidiq was arrested for cyber stalking.

“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC today arrested Mr Abubakar Sidiq Usman, a blogger, for offences bordering on cyber stalking,”the EFCC said in a statement on its Facebook page.

“The suspect who is the publisher of Abusidiqu.com was picked up at his Kubwa, Abuja home in the early hours of Monday August 8, 2016 by operatives of the EFCC and is currently being questioned over the alleged offence, which contravenes sections of the Cyber Crime Act.

“The suspect has already been offered administrative bail and would be released to his elected sureties.”

Earlier, Michael Bello, Sidiq’s lawyer, had told TheCable that his client was arrested for “an online publication”.

“About 8:45am today, some gentlemen walked up to the door of Mr Abubakar Sidiq in Kubwa; they said they were there in respect of a car that someone said was missing. They said they traced the (missing) car to the house,” he said.

“They asked for the particulars of the vehicle, and he gave it to them. It was at the point of this discussion that the EFCC bus was driven in… One of the men identified himself as Mayana Sambo, a leader of the team from EFCC.

“They now made it obvious that the story of the missing car was a decoy to pull him out of the house. They opened up that he was under arrest in respect of one of his publications. They presented a warrant to search his house, and they searched his house until about 10am. They only left with some documents from the house.”