Omoyele Sowore, activist and publisher, has accused the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike of unlawfully detaining a Federal Capital Development Administration (FCDA) worker over leaked documents involving a land allocation scandal linked to the minister’s children.
According to Sowore’s recent post on X, Mairiga Hassan Shaharu, an employee of the FCDA, was held at the FCDA Police Post last Friday after being accused of leaking documents that revealed the illegal allocation of large portions of Abuja land to two underage sons of the FCT Minister. The scandal was first exposed by Gazette Nigeria.
Sowore insists that Mairiga, who works in the department handling new land applications—not approvals or allocations—does not have access to the Land Department’s internal systems, casting doubt on the allegations against him.
The activist visited the police post with human rights lawyers Rosemary Hamza and Ak Musa, and uncovered troubling details about the detention. According to one lawyer, Wike’s CSO used a forged court order to justify the detention. The police refused to show the order initially, and when it was finally seen, it was revealed to be issued by a magistrate no longer presiding in that jurisdiction, indicating forgery and abuse of office.
Efforts to locate the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) were met with falsehoods from the CSO. A senior police officer at the post confirmed she lacked the authority to release Mairiga, stating he was considered Wike’s “personal detainee.”
Subsequently, the CSO claimed that the matter was escalated to the FCT Police Commissioner, CP Wale Ajao — who Sowore points out has previously been involved in controversial detentions linked to powerful individuals. When contacted, CP Ajao maintained the detention was backed by a valid court order, unaware that it had already been confirmed as forged.
In a final twist, Wike’s CSO reportedly invited Sowore to meet with the minister alongside the detainee, a proposal Sowore rejected, stating that Wike would not summon him and he would not visit the minister’s office.
Sowore concluded his statement by challenging Wike: “If Wike never allocated land to his children, why is someone being detained for leaking documents that supposedly don’t exist? Wike should be the one under investigation for allocating public lands to his children, a clear criminal conduct, not Citizen Mairiga.”
The activist and his legal team have called for the immediate release of Mairiga, using the hashtag #FreeMairigaNow to rally public support.
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