A Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday granted bail in the sum of N3m to a blogger, Seun Oloketuyi.
He was arraigned by the police for
allegedly publishing a defamatory story against the Chief Executive
Officer of Fidelity Bank Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo.
Oloketuyi had been remanded in Ikoyi
Prisons since August 25, 2015 after he was arraigned on two counts of
malicious publication against Okonkwo before Justice Mohammed Yunusa.
The accused blogger, who is the organiser
of the Annual Best of Nollywood Awards, was granted bail on Tuesday
following argument by his lawyer, Dr. Muiz Banire.
Banire,
who led a team of nine lawyers, said Oloketuyi had the right to be
granted bail by virtue of Section 158 of the Administration of Criminal
Justice Act 2015, which stipulates that an accused should be presumed
innocent until the prosecution is able to prove otherwise.
He also questioned the propriety of the
charge filed by the police against the blogger, adding that “the offence
with which the accused was purportedly charged is a bailable offence.”
Banire contended that the charge sheet
did not disclose enough evidence against the accused and urged the court
to exercise discretion in his favour.
“There is no proof of evidence; there is
no list of witnesses that the prosecution intends to call; somebody just
woke up one morning and wrote something on a sheet of paper, unleashing
it on the court.
“My Lord, there is even no charge
properly filed before this court in the first place. My understanding of
the law is that you cannot just bring an ordinary sheet before Your
Lordship,” Banire contended.
Banire, who said his colleagues and he
took up the case on pro bono, said there was no element of crime in the
charge filed by the police against the blogger, saying what anyone who
felt maligned with his publication should have done was to sue for
libel.
He, however, pleaded with the court to
consider the trauma that the aged mother of the accused, who was
accompanied to court by the popular comedian, Gbenga Adeyinka, had been
going through since the blogger was remanded.
Banire also said the blogger had a wife
and two children that he was responsible to, adding that he had been
through much trouble in the last one week due to the poor condition of
the Nigerian prison.
The blogger’s counsel also claimed that
prior to being charged to court, operatives of the Department of State
Services had harassed and inflicted physical injuries on the accused
blogger.
Banire assured the judge that if granted
bail, Oloketuyi would not abscond, saying he was a responsible young man
and an entrepreneur, who had employees working for him in his media
outfit.
But the police prosecutor, Mr. Olakanmi
Omisope, urged the court to refuse the bail application, saying the
accused blogger was a serial blackmailer, who was currently being
investigated by the DSS for other related offences.
In a bench ruling, however, Justice Yunusa granted Oloketuyi bail in the sum of N3m with two sureties in like sum.
The judge said one of the sureties must be a blood relation of the accused and must depose to an affidavit of means.
The surety must also be an owner of a
landed property in Lagos, the Certificate of Occupancy of which must be
verified by the prosecution.
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