SIBU: Melanau businessman Boniface Bujang Akei, 65, wants the police to publicly apologise for mistaking him as the culprit behind the @Swakheadhunter Twitter account.
His counsel, Augustine Liom, told a press conference yesterday that the police had 14 days from yesterday to make the apology.
“He wants the police to admit their mistakes and clear his name. If not, he may file a legal suit,” said Augustine.
On July 24, around 11pm, 10 policemen in five vehicles surrounded Boniface’s house in Kampung Nangka.
They woke up the shocked Boniface and accused him of being responsible for the @Swakheadhunters account, which is connected to the Facebook account ‘Al Tugauw’.
“I told them that I did not have any Twitter or Facebook account. I don’t even know how to use the Internet!” he said during the press conference yesterday.
He said the police proceeded to search his house and car but found nothing.
“The police actually forced me to admit that the guy in the picture was me. I am not happy with them and this incident has actually caused me so much shame. The ‘kampung’ (village) folk looked on as the police searched my house as if I was a criminal,” he lamented.
Boniface pointed out that he was born and raised in Kampung Tanam, Dalat and runs a company named Syarikat Tugau Perkasa here — which was named after the legendary Melanau warrior.
He lodged a report against the police on July 25.
Augustine said the police should have called Boniface to go to the police station for questioning instead of surrounding him at home in the middle of the night.
“The police should not have jumped to conclusions that it was him,” he stressed, adding that Boniface had never been involved in politics.
“Neither has he been a voter,” he added.
On July 22, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar ordered the arrest of the @Swakheadhunter account-holder under the Sedition Act for allegedly inciting Sarawakians to secede from Malaysia.
Khalid had posted on Twitter that the Police Cyber Investigation Response Centre had detected the holder of the account and also tweeted the message allegedly posted by @Swakheadhunter.
Meanwhile, an Internet search yesterday found that the profile photographs used by both @Swakheadhunter and the connected Al Tugauw Facebook page were actually of what appeared to be Iban warriors.
A further search revealed that @Swakheadhunter had tweeted a reply on March 13, 2011, saying: “Tak payah layan lah! Nak tahu siapa saya datang lah ke Kg Nangka, Sibu dan tanya orang di sini siapa Al Tugauw.” (No need to entertain it. If you want to know who I am come to Kampung Nangka Sibu and ask the people here who is Al Tugauw).
Kampung Nangka is a Melanau-majority village.-Borneo Post
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