Cybercrime: Ill-health of Judge stalls blogger, Harrison Ofoegbu’s bail request

Ruling on the bail application by a social media content creator, Mr. Chizorom Harrison Ofoegbu, was stalled on Friday due to the ill-health of Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Iyanna handling the alleged criminal intimidation, threat to life, cyberstalking, and cyberbullying of the founder and spiritual director of Zion Prayer Movement, Evangelist Ebuka Obi, slammed against him by the police.

The Chief Magistrate had, on Monday, slated Friday to rule on the bail application filed by the blogger through his counsel, Mr. Marvin Omorogbe.

Parties in the matter, who were in court as early as 9am, were informed by an official of the court at about 11 am that the court would not sit on the ground that the trial magistrate was sick.

Consequently, a new date of April 18 was fixed for the ruling of the bail application of the social media content creator, also known as Ijele.

Defence counsel had, on Monday, prayed the court to set aside the remand order granted against his client and order his release from the Keffi Correctional Centre or, in the alternative, admit him to bail.

Opposing the application for the bail of the applicant, police lawyer Obiora Ejiofor said there was no evidence placed before the court to warrant the exercise of its discretion to grant the applicant bail.

He informed the court that the police have filed a 4-count criminal charge against the applicant before the Federal High Court in Abuja and are waiting for a date to arraign the applicant.

The problem with the social media content creator started when the police arrested him over his alleged threat to kill the founder and spiritual director of the Zion Prayer Movement.

In a video he posted on his Facebook page, Ofoegbu, appearing in military camouflage, threatened to kill Ebuka Obi and cut off his head. He also threatened to kill any police officer who 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 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 Inspector General of Police (IGP) on the threat to the life of Evangelist Ebuka and cyberbullying by the legal team of the church.

He is currently being remanded in prison custody pending his trial in court.

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