An Enugu North Chief Magistrate’s Court has
remanded a 69-year-old retired soldier, Chris Okigbo, in prison for
writing a petition against the chief judge of the state, Justice
Innocent Umezurike.
Okigbo had, in a petition of April 21, 2011 to the National Judicial Council, accused Umezurike of perpetrating criminal activities against his family.
Based on the petition, which was also made available to the Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Dan-Azumi Doma, Okigbo was invited and detained at the police command by officers of the state Criminal Investigation Department for two days.
He was arraigned on Wednesday before Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Nwaru, who after his plea of not guilty, ordered him to be remanded in prison until June 10, 2011.
The magistrate said that the adjournment was to enable the opposing counsel to reply to the bail application by Tosin Babalola, counsel to the accused.
Babalola, representing the Global Human Rights Abuse Centre, while pleading for bail, said that Section 36(5) of the constitution presumed the accused innocent until the contrary was proven.
He said the charge was not a capital offence by virtue of Section 36(5) and section 35 of the constitution and that the accused was entitled to bail.
Okigbo was charged with intent to injure the reputation of Chief Magistrate D. E. Onwu and some other judicial officers in Enugu State.
The charge read to him stated that the letter addressed to the chief judge of Enugu State, the NJC and the state commissioner of police, contained defamatory matters, which in summary, portrayed them as corrupt public officers, who had abused their positions in the public service.
In the letter, entitled ‘Seven-point situation report,’ Okigbo accused the chief judge of directing Onwu to jail his son in 2008 without conviction.
He also claimed that the CJ directed Justice N. N. Nebo of the Agbani High Court to abandon a suit he filed against Onwu in E/38M/2008, among others.
By Ozioma Ubabukoh, Enugu Courtesy Of: Punch
Okigbo had, in a petition of April 21, 2011 to the National Judicial Council, accused Umezurike of perpetrating criminal activities against his family.
Based on the petition, which was also made available to the Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Dan-Azumi Doma, Okigbo was invited and detained at the police command by officers of the state Criminal Investigation Department for two days.
He was arraigned on Wednesday before Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Nwaru, who after his plea of not guilty, ordered him to be remanded in prison until June 10, 2011.
The magistrate said that the adjournment was to enable the opposing counsel to reply to the bail application by Tosin Babalola, counsel to the accused.
Babalola, representing the Global Human Rights Abuse Centre, while pleading for bail, said that Section 36(5) of the constitution presumed the accused innocent until the contrary was proven.
He said the charge was not a capital offence by virtue of Section 36(5) and section 35 of the constitution and that the accused was entitled to bail.
Okigbo was charged with intent to injure the reputation of Chief Magistrate D. E. Onwu and some other judicial officers in Enugu State.
The charge read to him stated that the letter addressed to the chief judge of Enugu State, the NJC and the state commissioner of police, contained defamatory matters, which in summary, portrayed them as corrupt public officers, who had abused their positions in the public service.
In the letter, entitled ‘Seven-point situation report,’ Okigbo accused the chief judge of directing Onwu to jail his son in 2008 without conviction.
He also claimed that the CJ directed Justice N. N. Nebo of the Agbani High Court to abandon a suit he filed against Onwu in E/38M/2008, among others.
By Ozioma Ubabukoh, Enugu Courtesy Of: Punch
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