The Department of State Services (DSS) has filed a three-count charge bordering on cybercrime and defamation against Mubarak Abdullahi, also known as Sardaunan Samari, over the circulation of a fake letter purportedly written by President Bola Tinubu to the United States president.

According to the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, Abdullahi was arrested on September 28 after sharing the document on Facebook with the caption, “ATIKU IS COMING.”

Onanuga disclosed in a post on X late Monday that Abdullahi admitted sharing the document during investigations and apologised for his actions.

He said the suspect was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Court 10 in Kabala Doki, Kaduna, which ordered his remand at the Nigerian Correctional Centre in Kaduna. The DSS has also filed charges against him at the Federal High Court in Kaduna, although a date for his formal arraignment has not been fixed.

Onanuga said the case demonstrated the DSS’s capacity to track people involved in circulating misleading information online.

The presidential aide described Abdullahi as a supporter of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. However, the claim could not be independently verified, and neither Atiku nor his media aide, Phrank Shaibu, had publicly reacted as of the time of the report.

Meanwhile, human rights activist and African Action Congress presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, criticised the arrest, accusing the Tinubu administration of using the DSS to suppress dissent.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Sowore questioned the deployment of a national security agency against a citizen over a document shared online and warned that those responsible would eventually be held accountable for their actions.