Amnesty International: free El-Rufai supporter held over posts about APC rally crowd

Amnesty International has called on the Nigerian authorities to release Imran Wakili, a supporter of former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, who it says was detained by police over posts on X.

According to the rights group, Wakili had suggested that pictures from the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign flag-off in Kaduna on 24 October were altered to make the crowd look bigger.

Amnesty said armed police went to his home in Karu, Abuja, on 29 October. When they did not find him, they allegedly arrested his younger brother and the manager of his estate to pressure him to come forward.

In a post on X, Amnesty said holding someone simply for what he said was unacceptable, warned that Wakili was at risk of ill-treatment, and said he had been denied access to his family and a lawyer. It urged the government to stop such attacks on free expression.

The police had not commented on the arrest at the time of publishing. El-Rufai is a political opponent of President Bola Tinubu.