The human rights organisation made the demand in a statement issued on Friday, stressing that the arrest warrant must be withdrawn pending the hearing of a motion for trial in absentia filed by her lawyers on 19 June. 

Global human rights body, the Amnesty International, has demanded the immediate withdrawal of the warrant of arrest issued by the Wurno Magistrate Court sitting in Gwiwa Sokoto of Sokoto State against Hamdiyya Sidi Sharif, the teenage critic of Sokoto state Governor Ahmed Aliyu.

The human rights organisation made the demand in a statement issued on Friday, stressing that the arrest warrant must be withdrawn pending the hearing of a motion for trial in absentia filed by her lawyers on 19 June. 

Amnesty International noted that Sharif’s absence at the court sitting on July 9 because of the medical treatment she is undergoing after she was abducted by the police made the warrant of arrest issued by the court against her contrary to all tenets of fair hearing and justice. 

“Amnesty International is deeply concerned by the warrant for the arrest of Hamdiyya Sidi Sharif issued by Wurno Magistrate Court sitting at Gwiwa Sokoto on 10 July,” the statement read. 

“Hamdiyya’s absence at the court sitting on 9 July because of the medical treatment she is undergoing after she was abducted made the warrant of arrest contrary to all tenets of fair hearing and justice.

“We are calling for the withdrawal of the warrant of arrest pending the hearing of a motion for trial in absentia filed by her lawyers on 19 June.”

SaharaReporters had exclusively reported in November 2024 how Sharif was arrested for “embarrassing" Governor Aliyu, on social media.

She was subsequently arraigned secretly without having access to a lawyer nor family members, according to a source familiar with the case. 

The woman had in a video lamented the insecurity in the state and demanded an end to the incessant killings by bandits. 

She revealed how gunmen took over villages without any restraint and added that displaced women seeking refuge in the state capital are now being sexually exploited due to abject poverty and squalor. 

Amnesty International berated the Sokoto state government over victimisation of the teenage critic.

The statement said, “Hamdiyya Sidi Sharif has been facing a trial in which Sokoto state government is charging her with the “use of insulting or abusive language” and “inciting disturbance” for criticising the governor of Sokoto state Mr, Ahmed Aliyu’s poor, reckless and insensitive handling of the horrifying security situation in eastern part of the state.

“Since the beginning of her trial, Hamdiyya Sharif was abducted twice.”

SaharaReporters had reported that on May 20, 2025, Sharif’s lawyers and family reported that she went missing on her way to the market to buy foodstuff. 

She mysteriously disappeared in Sokoto State amid the ongoing legal and political persecution allegedly orchestrated by Governor Aliyu.

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

A day later, she was found in a critical condition in a bush in Zamfara state where her abductors abandoned her, after subjecting her to life threatening abuses. 

Hamdiyya rose to prominence in November 2024 after she was arrested, secretly arraigned, and allegedly assaulted by agents of the Sokoto State government for a TikTok video in which she criticised Governor Ahmad Aliyu’s administration. 

The charges filed against her include “use of insulting or abusive language” and “inciting disturbance.

The teenage activist was denied access to legal representation and her family during her arraignment, a move rights advocates described as a blatant violation of her constitutional rights.

Since then, she has remained entangled in a legal tug-of-war with the Sokoto State government, while facing threats and cyberbullying allegedly from political loyalists of the governor.

Amnesty International said, “Instead of trying to suppress dissenting voices through the abuse of power, Sokoto state government and the Nigerian security agencies should prioritise urgently addressing rampant insecurity facing the people of the eastern part of Sokoto state, where gunmen have been killing people, razing villages, abducting women and girls – almost daily.”