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VIII. Other cases

Restrictions on freedom of expression have affected individuals from other backgrounds and professions too.

Disappearance of Hussaini Umar⁸⁵

In April 2003, Islamic teacher and scholar Hussaini Umar was arrested in the northern city of Kaduna and detained in an undisclosed location. By mid October 2003, his whereabouts remain unknown.

Sources close to Hussaini Umar in Kaduna believe his arrest was linked to comments he had made just before the elections, which were interpreted as critical of the government. According to one source, the Kaduna State governor had called a meeting of Islamic scholars and others to persuade them to vote for the government. The governor reportedly said that politics and religion should be kept separate; Hussaini Umar disagreed with this and reportedly said that politics and religion could not be separated from each other, or from other aspects of life. Other sources in Kaduna said that Hussaini Umar had accused the government of corruption and of not doing enough to reduce poverty, and that he had been particularly critical of the Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar (who is also a Muslim). He had also been critical of the manner in which Sharia (Islamic law) was being implemented in Nigeria, believing that Muslims should be judged by Sharia wherever they live in the country, not only in those areas where Sharia legislation is in force. He had expressed some of these views to state and federal government officials, as well as to the media and in speeches during prayers.⁸⁶

On April 26, 2003, as he was travelling back to Kaduna from Zamfara State, Husseini Umar was arrested just outside Kaduna by three mobile policemen and four men in plain clothes believed to be either members of the SSS or the police; he was taken to an unknown destination. By the end of June, neither his family nor his lawyers had been informed of his whereabouts or had been able to visit him. During his period, both his house and the school where he taught were searched by the police. The matter of his disappearance was taken to the Federal High Court in Kaduna on a habeas corpus application, which ruled that the authorities (Director General of the SSS, Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General) should either release Hussaini Umar or produce him in court. However, they failed to do either. The court ruling noted that the director of the SSS “totally denied ever arresting or taking part in the operation in which the applicant was arrested,” but that neither the police nor the office of the Attorney General responded.⁸⁷ Sources in Kaduna later reported that he had been arrested by a special unit within the SSS.

When Human Rights Watch visited Kaduna at the end of July 2003, Hussaini Umar’s whereabouts were still unknown. Human rights activists who had tried to locate him had initially been told by the SSS that he had been taken to Abuja, but subsequently the SSS in Kaduna denied that he had ever been arrested. Other sources claimed that he was first taken to Ebonyi State, in the southeast, then transferred to Lagos, in the southwest. Further inquiries in September and October 2003 appeared to indicate that following his arrest on the Zaria-Kaduna highway, he was first taken back to Zamfara, then back to Kaduna again, after which he was transferred first to Abuja, then to Lagos, and finally to Port Harcourt— about 1,000 kilometres from Kaduna—where he was believed to be still detained by mid October. The authorities have still not officially acknowledged his detention.

Harassment of Sergeant Musa Usman

In August 2003, police officer Sergeant Musa Usman was arrested and questioned by the police after speaking out about corruption and poor conditions in the police force. He voiced his criticisms on August 21, 2003, during a meeting in Lagos addressed by Minister for Police Affairs Broderick Bozimo. The minister had invited those present to express their views. Sergeant Musa spoke in the meeting about corruption in the police force; he complained about the poor pay and other disadvantages faced by junior officers. At one point, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police attempted to stop him by trying to take the microphone, but the minister said he should continue. A few days later, on August 27, Sergeant Musa was arrested and questioned by the Lagos State police in connection with the comments he had made during the meeting. It is not known whether he was subsequently released or transferred to another location. Members of a nongovernmental organization who made inquiries with the police in Ikoyi, Lagos, where he was normally based, were told that he was not there, and have not been able to make direct contact with him since. As of September 2003, his whereabouts were not known. In response to a letter addressed to the Minister for Police Affairs by the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN), which was made public, the Lagos State commissioner of police denied arresting or questioning Sergeant Musa, claiming that it was a routine procedure.⁸⁸