A Nigerian court has sentenced two men to 20 lashes for posting a satirical video on the TikTok platform in which they criticized the governor of Kano state (north), Abdullahi Ganduje, whom they portrayed as corrupt.
The sentenced men, Mubarak Muhammad and Nazifi Muhammad, have been detained for weeks for allegedly defaming Ganduje, according to the Nigerian newspaper ‘The Premium Times’. In addition to the lashes, they will have to pay a fine for «disturbing public order».
Also, the convicts will have to perform social services, namely cleaning the court premises, and post on TikTok and other social networks a video apologizing to the governor of Kano for the video, in which they present Ganduje selling all the public land in the state.
Ganduje has been at the center of controversy in recent years after the ‘Daily Nigerian’ newspaper published a video in 2018 showing him receiving money from a public contractor. In addition, his wife was arrested in October 2021 as part of a bribery and fraud case reported by his son.
