Officials of the Federal High Court, Warri Division, have commenced a verification exercise to fulfil the conditions of the bail granted to the Delta Take-It-Back Coordinator, Ighorhiohwunu Aghogho, about three weeks ago.
Aghogho has been in prison custody for over 10 months.
Findings by Sahara Reporters revealed that the verification exercise embarked upon by the court officials is in fulfilment of the bail conditions attached to the granting of the bail application which is inclusive of landed property with a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).
As part of the verification exercise, the Court will also write the Prosecutor, which is the Delta State Ministry of Justice to seek its consent for the release of the Defendant from prison custody regardless of whether the prosecutor was in court during the argument and granting of the bail application.
The court will also verify from the Ministry of Lands if the land brought by the person that wants to be Aghogho’s surety is genuine.
Normally, this process does not take much time, but official bottlenecks can sometimes delay it.
Aghogho was first arraigned on holding charges at the Magistrate Court in Asaba in June 2022 and remanded at the Federal Custodial Centre, Ogwashi-Uku.
He was arraigned at the Federal High Court, Warri Division on October 12, 2022, on six counts bordering on cyberstalking and was remanded at the Federal Correctional Centre, Warri on the same date.
SaharaReporters on April 26, 2023 published how Justice Abang Okon of the Federal High Court, Warri Division granted bail to Aghogho after spending 10 months in prison.
The Court in a bench ruling granted the unopposed oral application made by the counsel for the defendant, Kunle Edun Esq.
Addressing the court, Edun submitted that he had just been briefed on the matter and he intended to make two oral applications.
“My Lordship, I intend to make two oral applications; one is to seek the permission of the court to use Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to resolve the case and the other is to orally apply for the bail application for the release of the defendant who has been in prison custody for ten months," Edun submitted.
The Court asked for the response of the prosecuting counsel, J. A. Amahi Esq on the submission of the defence counsel.
“I have no objection, my Lord,” the prosecuting counsel responded.
However, the court drew the attention of the defence counsel to why the bail application filed on October 17, 2022, by the defendant was struck out on October 24, 2022, and why the court ordered the defendant to file a fresh bail application, which is pending to date.
"The bail application filed by the defendant in-person on 17/10/2022 was struck out because the defendant created a column for a Judge to sign on the application and he could not explain the law empowering him to do so. The bail application is very incompetent and was struck out," Justice Okon said.
The defence counsel immediately applied orally to withdraw the bail application filed by the defendant in person on October 25, 2022, which is still pending and applied orally for a fresh bail application.
Again, the prosecuting counsel did not oppose the oral application made by the defence counsel.
“The oral application made by the senior counsel withdrawing the bail application filed by the defendant in-person on 25/10/2022 is hereby granted and the bail application filed on 25/10/2022 is hereby struck out," the court ruled.
In a bench ruling on the oral application made by the defence counsel, Justice Okon Abang admitted the defendant to bail
“The defendant is admitted to bail in the sum of 5 million naira surety in like sum and this surety must have a landed property with Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) and he will put down an undertaken that the defendant will not make any publication with regards to the complainants during the pendency of this case and beyond or any citizen of Nigeria which he knew to be false, and the purpose of causing hatred, ill-will and injury to them," Justice Okon added.
The case was adjourned to June 1, 2023, for further cross-examination of the PW1 and report of settlement.