A Sokoto Chief Magistrate Court presided over by Chief Magistrate Faruk Umar, has sentenced an 18-year-old social media activist, Hamdiyya Sidi Shariff, to 12 strokes of cane, or 2 years imprisonment or a fine of Fifty thousand Naira (N50,000).

Shariff was arrested Nevermind 13, 2024, and put in prison for allegedly lamenting the rising killings and general insecurity in the state on social media.

She was first abducted by armed men and whisked into a tricycle while going to collect her phone from a charging point.

She was beaten and thrown out of a moving tricycle and left with severe injuries.

In a viral video, she revealed how bandits pillaged their villages without any restraints and how displaced women seeking refuge in the state capital are now being sexually exploited due to abject poverty and squalor.

The Sokoto State Government first charged her before a Sharia Court for the “use of insulting or abusive language” and “inciting disturbance” after she criticized Governor Ahead Aliyu.