Mahdi Shehu, a well-known whistleblower and rights activist in Kaduna, was arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) for a contentious social media post in which she claimed that France was pressuring Nigerian President Bola Tinubu to build a French military installation in the Northwestern area.

After President Tinubu’s recent trip to France, Mr. Shehu’s post, which included an old film that incorrectly suggested French domination in Nigerian politics, generated a lot of internet discussion.

He was arrested by the DSS over the weekend and is currently being held at their Kaduna office, even though they removed the video that had gone viral.

According to sources in the People’s Gazette, the DSS is getting ready to charge Mr. Shehu in court on Monday. A newspaper in Kaduna called Solacebase was the first to report on the arrest.

Mr. Shehu has already dealt with authorities. Abubakar Malami, the former Attorney-General of the Federation, accused him of extortion, which led to his detention by the police earlier this year.

In his denial of the allegations, Mr. Shehu claimed he was persecuted because he was working on a story that implicated the previous justice minister.