A 32-year-old civil servant, Mr. Johnson Musa,
was on Friday dragged before a Lokoja Chief
Magistrates’ Court for allegedly threatening
and exposing the Abuja residence of
Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.
Musa, an indigene of Dekina Local
Government Area of the state, was alleged to
have taken aerial pictures of the governor’s
Abuja residence with a drone camera and
posted them on social media.
He was said to have posted the pictures
with the caption, “This building is owned by
an individual in Kogi, where hunger is the
first name, in less than one year.”
The prosecuting counsel, Mohammed Abaji,
a senior legal officer with the state Ministry
of Justice, said Musa was arrested on
Thursday by men of the Department of State
Services.
The action, Abaji said, had put the governor
and his family under threat and potential
harm to their property, urging the court to
take cognisance of the offence of
cyberstalking against the accused.
Musa pleaded not guilty to the offence and
his counsel, Williams Aliwo of Crystal
Chambers, orally applied for his bail in line
with section 36(5) of the constitution and
section 341(2) of the Criminal Procedure
Code.
Aliwo submitted that any order to remand
the accused in prison custody would
amount to punishing him ahead of the
proof of his guilt, adding that the accused
would not jump bail or try to escape justice
if the bail conditions were granted.
But the bail application was vehemently
opposed by Abaji on the grounds that an
investigation into the matter was ongoing
aside from the fact that the penalty attached
to the offence is 10 years’ imprisonment or
an option of a minimum of N25m fine.
In his ruling, the Chief Magistrate, Alhassan
Husaini, said by virtue of Section 36(5) of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), the
presumption of innocence of the accused
was constitutionally guaranteed.
Husaini granted the accused bail in the sum
of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum,
adding that the sureties must be resident
within the jurisdiction of the court.
To allay the fears of the prosecution counsel
over the inconclusive investigation, he
ordered that a register of attendance be
opened at the DSS office for the accused to
report on Monday and Thursday.
Husaini adjourned the case to August 17.
