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A Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, has denied journalist Agba Jalingo the chance to apply for bail in a defamatory trial filed against him by the Federal Capital Territory Police Command.
Jalingo was accused of defaming Elizabeth Ayade, the wife of Frank Ayade, who is a brother of Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade.
SaharaReporters gathered that the journalist was denied the chance to exercise his constitutional right to request bail during the continuation of the trial in a ruling delivered by Justice Zainab Bage Abubakar on Monday morning.
The constitutional right to bail is ingrained in the trite law that every accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. This right is guaranteed under Sections 35 and 36(5) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
SaharaReporters observed that the judge was hostile to Jalingo’s lawyers, denying them the opportunity to stand down the case for 30 minutes in order to give the lead lawyer, Marshal Abubakar an opportunity to file an application for bail. When Marshal arrived, she refused to participate in the hearing.
She then ordered that Agba Jalingo should be arraigned in the dock and be read his one-count charge. The judge thereafter sent him to Kuje prison until Thursday.
The police in August 2022 arrested Jalingo after hours of laying siege to his Lagos residence for allegedly defaming the character of Elizabeth.
According to a court document obtained by SaharaReporters and filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja on December 6, 2022, the police claimed the publication by the journalist against Elizabeth was false and was released for the purpose of causing her annoyance, ill will, and insult.
The charge sheet read, “That you Agba Jalingo male of No.14 Oremeji Street, Ojudu Alapere Lagos on 30th June, 2022 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did intentionally publish online at Cross River Watch and alleged that one Mrs Elizabeth Ayade procured the services of one Pascal Aboh to write Nigeria Law School Examination Bar Examination for her, information you know to be false for the purpose of causing her annoyance, ill will and insult. You thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 24(1) b of CYBERCRIMES (PROTECTION, PREVENTION ETC) ACT, 2015.
“That you Agba Jalingo male of No.14 Oremeji Street, Ojudu Alapere Lagos on 30th June, 2022 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did intentionally published on your Facebook page known as Agba Jalingo that one Mrs Elizabeth Ayade procured the services of one Pascal Aboh to write Nigeria Law School Examination Bar Examination for her, information you know to be false for the purpose of causing her annoyance, ill will and insult. You thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 24(1) b of CYBERCRIMES (PROTECTION, PREVENTION ETC) ACT, 2015.”
One Paschal Aboh, a suspended law lecturer at the University of Calabar, was nabbed and arrested for impersonating and re-taking an examination for a student at the school.
The lecturer was suspected to have taken the examination for Elizabeth.
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