The federal governmentyesterday arraigned two LEADERSHIP journalists — group news editor Mr Tony Amokeodo and political reporter Mr Chibuzo Ukaibe — on an alleged 11-count criminal charge bordering on conspiracy and forgery.
The journalists were, however, granted bail by the trial judge, Justice U.A. Musale of an Abuja high court sitting in Kubwa district, after they pleaded not guilty.
Justice Musale admitted the duo of Amokeodo and Ukaibe to bail to the tune N500, 000 each with one surety each who must be a reasonable person.
The court consequently adjourned the case to July 16, 2013, for hearing.
“The bail application has not been opposed by the prosecution and therefore is granted. The prosecution also said they have concluded investigation therefore the accused persons have nothing to tamper with. I, therefore, grant them bail to the tune of N500,000 each with one surety who must be a responsible person. This matter is adjourned to July 16, 2013 for hearing,” he said.
When the 11-count charges were read to the two journalists, they pleaded not guilty to all the charges and, consequently, the prosecutor, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) asked the court for a date for trial.
Awomolo stated further that investigation had been concluded and the prosecution was ready to go into trial. He, therefore, asked the court to remand the two journalists to prison custody.
But the journalists’ lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN) in his application for bail prayed the court not to remand them in prison custody: “Having regard to theconcession we made this morning to allow the charge to be read even though the charges were served on the accused persons in the evening of Monday this week, ordinarily, Sir, we would have come to plead with you that we were not given adequate time, but because we don’t want to waste the time of the court…
“The accused persons were charged before a federal high court and were equally granted bail. They met the bail conditions and were shown the way out of the court. Even this morning, they came here on their own not under any condition. I, therefore, urge the court to admit them on bail since they have been on bail before. We have actually filed a bail application this morning and I want to tell this honourable court that these accused persons do not havecriminal record and they will not jump bail. I have also pleaded with the respected SAN, Chief Awomolo, in his characteristic manner to allow these people to go home.”
In his submission, Chief Awomolo confirmed service of bail application on him by the defence lawyers: “I was served with a motion paper dated June 26, 2013, and filed on the same date at 8.53am shortly before we entered the court. I concede that the accused persons were granted bail at the Federal High Court and that the case was struck out. I will use that same gesture to believe that they will not jump bail.”
The 11-count charge is as follows:
COUNT 1: That you TONY AGBOOLA AMOKEODO, CHIBUZOR UKAIBE, LEADERSHIP GROUP LIMITED, all of 27 Ibrahim Tahir Lane, Utako, Abuja, on or about the 3rd day of April, 2013 at Abuja within the Federal Capital Territory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did conspire amongst yourselves to commit felony to wit: forged a documenttitled ‘Presidential Directive’ having on it the Seal of the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria published on the front page of Leadership Newspaper of 3rd day of April, 2013, intended by you to be understood to be the seal of the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the intent of the document purported it to be the directive of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 97 of the Penal Code Act, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
COUNT 2: That you TONY AGBOOLA AMOKEODO, CHIBUZOR UKAIBE, LEADERSHIP GROUP LIMITED, all of 27 Ibrahim Tahir Lane, Utako, Abuja, on or about the 3rd day of April, 2013 at Abuja within the Federal CapitalTerritory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did commit an offence to wit: forged a document titled ‘Presidential Directive’ having on it the Seal of the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria published on the front page of Leadership Newspaper of 3rd day of April, 2013, intended by you to be understood to be the seal of the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the intent of the document purported it to be that, made by the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and thereby committed an offence punishable underSection 365 of the Penal Code Act, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
COUNT 3: That you TONY AGBOOLA AMOKEODO, CHIBUZOR UKAIBE, LEADERSHIP GROUP LIMITED, all of 27 Ibrahim Tahir Lane, Utako, Abuja, on or about the 3rd day of April, 2013 at Abuja within the Federal CapitalTerritory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did conspire amongst yourselves to commit felony to wit: making a false document titled PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE on a letter head purporting same to be a document made from the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and published same on the front page of LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER of 3rd day of April, 2013, knowing it to be false and with the intent that it may be acted upon as genuine to the prejudice of the President and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 97 of the Penal Code Act, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
COUNT 4: That you TONY AGBOOLA AMOKEODO, CHIBUZOR UKAIBE, LEADERSHIP GROUP LIMITED, all of 27 Ibrahim Tahir Lane, Utako, Abuja, on or about the 3rd day of April, 2013 at Abuja within the Federal CapitalTerritory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did make a false document titled PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE on a letter head, purporting same to be a document from the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and published same on the front page of LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER of 3rd day of April, 2013 knowing it to be false and with the intent that it may be acted upon as genuine to the prejudice of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 363 of the Penal Code Act, Laws of the Federal CapitalTerritory, Abuja.
COUNT 5: That you TONY AGBOOLA AMOKEODO, CHIBUZOR UKAIBE, LEADERSHIP GROUP LIMITED, all of 27 Ibrahim Tahir Lane, Utako, Abuja, on or about the 3rd day of April, 2013 at Abuja within the Federal CapitalTerritory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did conspire amongst yourselves to commit felony to wit: dishonestly using as genuine afalse document titled PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE with the seal of thePresident of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, purporting same to be adocument made or issued by the office of the President of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria and published same on the front page of LEADERSHIPNEWSPAPER of 3rd day of April, 2013, for the consumption of thegeneral public and thereby committed an offence punishable underSection 97 of the Penal Code Act, Laws of the Federal CapitalTerritory, Abuja.
COUNT 6: That you TONY AGBOOLA AMOKEODO, CHIBUZOR UKAIBE, LEADERSHIP GROUP LIMITED, all of 27 Ibrahim Tahir Lane, Utako, Abuja, on or aboutthe 3rd day of April, 2013 at Abuja within the Federal CapitalTerritory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court diddishonestly use as genuine a false document titled ‘PRESIDENTIALDIRECTIVE’ with the seal of the office of the President of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria, purporting same to be the document made or issuedby the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria andpublished same on the front page of LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER of 3rd day ofApril, 2013, for the consumption of the general public and therebycommitted an offence punishable under Section 366 of the Penal CodeAct, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
COUNT 7: That you TONY AGBOOLA AMOKEODO, CHIBUZOR UKAIBE, LEADERSHIP GROUP LIMITED, all of 27 Ibrahim Tahir Lane, Utako, Abuja, on or aboutthe 3rd day of April, 2013 at Abuja within the Federal CapitalTerritory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did conspireto commit an offence to wit: attempted to excite feelings ofdisaffection against the person of the President of the FederalRepublic of Nigeria through the false document published by you on thefront page of LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER of 3rd day of April, 2013, titled’PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE’ which document was intended by you to excitefeelings of disaffection and thereby committed an offence punishableunder Section 97 of the Penal Code Act, Laws of the Federal CapitalTerritory, Abuja.
COUNT 8: That you TONY AGBOOLA AMOKEODO, CHIBUZOR UKAIBE, LEADERSHIP GROUP LIMITED, all of 27 Ibrahim Tahir Lane, Utako, Abuja, on or aboutthe 3rd day of April, 2013 at Abuja within the Federal Capital Territory underthe jurisdiction of this honourable court did commit an offence towit: attempted to excite feelings of disaffection against the personof the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through the falsedocument published by you on the front page of LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER of3rd day of April, 2013, titled ‘PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE’ which documentwas intended by you to excite feelings of disaffection and therebycommitted an offence punishable under Section 416 of the Penal Code(Northern States) Federal Provision Act, Laws of the Federal CapitalTerritory, Abuja.
COUNT 9: That you TONY AGBOOLA AMOKEODO, CHIBUZOR UKAIBE, LEADERSHIP GROUP LIMITED, all of 27 Ibrahim Tahir Lane, Utako, Abuja, on or aboutthe 3rd day of April, 2013 at Abuja within the Federal CapitalTerritory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did conspireto commit an offence to wit: Publishing a statement titled’PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE’ which you have reason to believe to be falsewith intent to cause alarm to the public whereby members of the publicmay be induced to commit an offence against public peace and youthereby committed an offence punishable under Section 97 of the PenalCode Act, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
COUNT 10: That you TONY AGBOOLA AMOKEODO, CHIBUZOR UKAIBE, LEADERSHIP GROUP LIMITED, all of 27 Ibrahim Tahir Lane, Utako, Abuja, on or aboutthe 3rd day of April, 2013 at Abuja within the Federal CapitalTerritory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did commit an offence to wit: Publishing a statement titled ‘PRESIDENTIALDIRECTIVE’ which you have reason to believe to be false with intent tocause alarm to the public whereby members of the public may be inducedto commit an offence against public peace and you thereby committed anoffence punishable under Section 418 of the Penal Code (NorthernStates) Federal Provision Act, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory,Abuja.
COUNT 11: That you TONY AGBOOLA AMOKEODO, CHIBUZOR UKAIBE, LEADERSHIP GROUP LIMITED, all of 27 Ibrahim Tahir Lane, Utako, Abuja, on or aboutthe 3rd day of April, 2013 at Abuja within the Federal CapitalTerritory under the jurisdiction of this honourable court did commitan offence to wit: Having in your possession without lawful excuse adocument titled ‘PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE’, the publication of which iscapable of exciting feelings of disaffection against the person of thePresident of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 419 of the Penal Code (NorthernStates) Federal Provision Act, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory,Abuja.
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