A Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP, Abu Michael yesterday told justice Ayokunle Faji of the Federal High court , Lagos that the four bloggers currently facing trial over alleged defamation, and cyberstalking of GTCO, CEO and it’s management made their statement to the police under a conducive environment, voluntarily and without any inducement or force.
CSP Abu made the clarification while giving evidence during the trial within trial ordered by the court following the objection by counsel to defendants.
The defendants, Precious Eze,Olawale Rotimi, Rowland Olonishuwa, and Seun Odunlami has challenged the admissibility of the statements they made to the police.
Led in evidence by the prosecutor, Chief Ajibola Aribisala, SAN, the witness, Abu Michael told the court that on the 21st of September this year , Precious Eze was brought to the investigation room and that as a senior officer he supervised the interrogation which was conducted by another member of his team.
Abu said he was in an observation room where he can observed, see and hear what was going on in the investigation room, but added that those in the investigation room can not see him.
He added that he could recollect hearing the interrogating police officer asking the first defendant , Precious Eze that he has a right to his lawyer, but that Eze insisted he could write his statement by himself.
“The interview was conducted under a conducive environment.” The witness said.
He added that the standard in SFU is that from the observation room, other top officers can see what was going from their different offices to ensure transparency and fair treatment of suspects.
The witness stated that the same standard was used in the interrogation of the other three defendants.
As part of the trial within trial , the video clips of the interrogation of the defendants was also played in the open court.
Following the conclusion of evidence by the prosecution witness , the defendants’ counsel asked for a further date to cross-examined the witness, stating that they are just seeing the video clips for the first time and would need to study it .
Meanwhile, counsel to the defendants today moved the motion for their bail, and urged the court to admit the defendants to bail in liberal terms.
He submitted that the offence for which defendants are charged are bailable, adding that the defendants are ready to face their trial as they are presumed innocent until proved otherwise by the court.
Opposing the application, the prosecutor, Chief Aribisala SAN, urged the court to refuse the application, and instead grant an accelerated hearing of the matter.
Aribisala argued that if bail is granted to the defendants the likelihood of their absconding is very high adding that, that would defeat the essence of justice.
After listening to parties, Justice Faji adjourned ruling on the bail application as well as continuation of trial till November 13th ,2024 .
It would be recalled that the trial of the four bloggers charged with alleged defamation and Cyberstalking GTCO as well as it’s Management resumed on Thursday with the Investigating Police Officer, IPO, Mr Yaqob Sule informing the court that the first defendant in the case, Mr Precious Eze is a serial blackmailer .
On the last adjourned date which was Thursday the prosecution had opened its case and called it’s first witness, Yaqob Sule who testified that the defendants are serial blackmailers.
Sule also told the court that in the course of their investigation he discovered that the first defendant , Eze had been arraigned before an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrate Court, Lagos early this year on May 31, 2024, and was released on bail sometime in June, only for him to commit another similar offence again.
The witness testified that on September 19, 2024 the Commissioner of Police , SFU , Ikoyi minuted a petition from GTCO legal consultant to his team and was directed to take charge of the petition as the Investigation Police Officer.
Sule said the caption of the the petition was libelous, publications, breach of peace and attempt to extort all linked to a publications.
He said that as the IPO he tried to open the links and saw the publications against GTCO, GTbank, the CEO, Management, the Central Bank of Nigeria among others.
The witness added that after the arrest of the four defendants, their statements were taken and they owned up to being behind the publications but confessed that they did not confirm the authenticity of the story before posting it on their blogs.
Sule added that the defendants also denied asking for money before they could pull down the story.
” While investigating we discovered that the fourth defendant had registered two platforms , News jaunt.com and Thevission.com and it was through the Thevission.com platform that the fourth defendant used to negotiate for funds with the GTCO legal consultant before he would pull the story down.
” The fourth defendant during the investigation denied that he doesn’t know Thevission.com, that the only platform he managed was Newsjaunt.com,” he said
