A Kwara-based journalist and publisher of Nupeko TV Lafiagi, Tauheed Mohammed, has been ordered to the Oke Kura Correctional Centre in Ilorin over an alleged defamatory publication against the state’s Commissioner for Water Resources, Hon. Usman Yunusa Lade.
The remand order followed a direct criminal complaint filed by the commissioner on September 22, 2025, accusing Mohammed of multiple offences under the Penal Code, including defamation, printing and selling defamatory materials, and criminal intimidation.
The case also coincides with an ongoing ₦10 million civil defamation suit instituted by the same commissioner against Nupeko TV Lafiagi over related allegations.
The controversy arose from a report published on July 28, 2024, titled “Hon Usman Lade, Kwara Commissioner for Water Resources Under Fire for Mismanagement and Neglect.”
The report accused Commissioner Lade of abandoning his primary duty of ensuring steady water supply in Lafiagi and other parts of Edu Local Government Area, instead focusing on distributing farm inputs — an activity described in the report as “outside his portfolio.”
The article further alleged financial misconduct, incompetence, and dereliction of duty by the commissioner.
However, Hon. Lade has repeatedly denied the allegations, maintaining that the rehabilitation of the Lafiagi waterworks has been completed, and that claims of persistent water scarcity in the area are “unfounded and politically motivated.”
During Wednesday’s hearing in Ilorin, the commissioner was represented by legal counsels Dayo M. Zulqurnaini, Esq. and Abdulmalik Yusuf Bello, Esq.
Following the prosecution’s submissions, the Presiding Magistrate directed that Tauheed Mohammed be remanded at the Oke Kura Correctional Centre pending further proceedings.
The Defence Counsel, Lanre Abdul, Esq., told journalists after the proceedings that the civil case against the journalist “is ongoing smoothly in another court.”
He added that a bail application would be filed to secure the release of Tauheed Mohammed.
The case was adjourned until October 20, 2025, for further hearing.
