Sunny Nwankwo, Umuahia
A MAGISTRATE Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, has remanded an Aba-based lawyer Emperor Gabriel Ogbonna at a correctional facility in the state capital.
Ogbonna, a human rights activist, was reportedly arrested by police in Aba on Wednesday March 25, and was hurriedly arraigned.
The lawyer and another person, now at large, were arraigned for cybercrimes and intentionally publishing false and threatening messages through the internet against Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
The offences, according to the charge sheet, are punishable under Section 27(1) (a) and 18(1) of cyber crimes (Prohibition Prevention ETC) Act, 2015.
The lawyer’s plea was not taken for lack of court jurisdiction.
He was remanded in prison custody pending the hearing of his bail application.
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It was learnt that the judge who was supposed to hear the motion for Ogbonna’s bail application withdrew from the matter citing personal reasons.
Interim chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Aba branch, Theo Nkire could not be reached at the time of filing this report.
But a source told our reporter that the NBA met on Friday and reviewed the lawyer’s case.
It was gathered that the lawyers shelved the idea of protesting their colleague’s ordeal because of the coronavirus pandemic.
They resolved to petition the national body of the NBA over the activities of an Umuahia-based lawyer who they claimed was behind the incarceration of their colleague.
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