LAGOS COURT REFUSES EZE NDIGBO BAIL AFTER ALLEGED TERRORISM CHARGE
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By Aishat Momoh. O.
On Friday, a Lagos High Court in Tafawa Balewa Square denied Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate, Lagos, and Frederick Nwajagu’s request for bail after he was charged with terrorist offenses.
Justice Yetunde Adesanya, the vacation judge, claims that given the gravity of the offense and the harshness of the sentence, the court is compelled to deny the bail motion.
Nwajagu is on trial for nine counts that are almost nine total, including meeting to promote a prohibited entity, financing terrorism, and attempting to conduct acts of terror.
Reports had it that the defendant had on July 25, applied for bail, citing his medical reports, adding that he was not a flight risk.
At the resumed hearing, the court declined the defendant’s application and ordered for an accelerated hearing.
Justice Adesanya held, “based on the seriousness of the offence, the severity of the punishment and the prove of evidence before the court, the court is constrained to refuse the bail application.
“The application for accelerated hearing is hereby granted”.
The judge, however, directed the correctional facility officials to make arrangements for the defendant to visit a government hospital for his treatment.
She adjourned hearing until Oct. 3.
The defendant’s attorney, Mr. E. C. Obiagu (SAN), had requested bail on the grounds of the defendant’s ill condition at the most recent adjourned date.
Additionally, he informed the court that the defendant was a widower with six children whom he would not desert and would not elude arrest by jumping bail.
According to Obiagu, the defendant was not a flight risk because they did not have a passport that allowed them to go internationally.
The defendant was granted bail in the lower court, but the senior attorney claimed that because of the bail’s strict conditions, the defendant was unable to complete it.
However, in response, Mr. Jonathan Ogunsanya, the deputy director for public prosecutions in Lagos State, pleaded with the court to deny the defendant’s bail.
He requested that the court issue an order for an expedited hearing.
Ogunsanya stated, among other things, that the charges brought against the defendant at the high court were not the same as those under which he was granted bail at the lower court.
He made the case that the accusation made against the defendant by the police differs considerably from the accusation made against him by the attorney general.
The Lagos State Government had in a suit marked no: LD/21505C/2023, alleged that the defendant’s acts contravened the provisions of Section 403(2) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The state stated that the offences also contravened Sections 12(a) (c), 18, 21 and 29 of the Terrorism (Prevention & Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Previous reports had it that Nwajagu, was arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) over an alleged threat to invite members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to Lagos to secure properties of Igbo people in the state.
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