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The absence of Chief Magistrate Iyanna Emmanuel of a Wuse Zone 6 Chief Magistrate Court, stalled bail the ruling on the bail application of a blogger, Mr. Chizorom Harrison Ofoegbu, popularly known as Ijele Speaks, who has been in detention for more than two weeks.
Following the inability of the court to sit to deliver its ruling, Ofoegbu will remain in prison custody till 18th April, 2024, the new date set for the ruling on the bail application.
The accused person is standing trial before the court over alleged criminal intimidation, threat to life, cyberstalking and cyberbullying.
A staff of the court told, our or respondent that the Chief Magistrate’s had been indisposed for some days which occasioned his inability to attend to cases in his court.
The court staff said, “My Lord is not feeling fine. Yesterday, I called him and from his voice, I observed he is not feeling well. I just made a call now, he told me that he is seriously down”.
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is prosecuting the blogger over alleged criminal intimidation, threat to life, cyberstalking and cyberbullying of the founder and spiritual director of Zion Prayer Movement, Evangelist Ebuka Obi.
Counsel to the social media content creator, Mr. Marvin Omorogbe, had prayed the court to set aside the remand order granted against his client and order his release from the Keffi Correctional Center or in the alternative, admit him to bail..
Responding on points of law, Omorogbe told the court that exhibits police attached to the counter affidavit it filed to oppose the bail request, were forged.
“The purported wanted person notice was forged. That was why they made photocopy of it to confuse the court. The court should not accord any value to the exhibits. The documents do not meet the minimum standard of the evidence Act,” he submitted.
He equally argued that police did not exhibit any charge in all the processes it brought before the Magistrate court.
The defence counsel contended that the remand order he said was illegally obtained by the police by gross suppression of facts, had since elapsed.
He, therefore, prayed the court to release his client on bail.
After he had listened to submissions by both sides, Chief Magistrate Iyanna adjourned the matter for ruling.
It will be recalled that the social media content creator was arrested over an allegation that he threatened to kill the founder and spiritual director of Zion Prayer Movement.
In a video he posted on his Facebook page, Ofoegbu, allegedly threatened to kill the cleric and cut off his head.
He allegedly equally threatened to kill any police officer that attempted to arrest him.
In another post, Ofoegbu carried a placard on which he wrote, “Evangelist Ebuka Obi is a criminal and liar” and tagged all the miracles in Zion Prayer Movement as deceits, urging the police to arrest him for turning his religious institution into a business enterprise.
The development led to the filing of a petition to the Inspection General of Police (IGP) on the threat to the life of Evangelist Ebuka Obi and cyber-bullying.
Based on the petition, the blogger was arrested and detained in Abuja by the police
