HOPES of breathing the air of freedom on
Tuesday eluded the Majority Leader of the Rivers State House of
Assembly, Mr. Chidi Lloyd, as a State High Court, sitting in Port
Harcourt, ordered that he should be remanded in prison custody. Read more
The trial judge, Justice Letam Nyordee,
had given the directive that Lloyd remained in prison custody till
Wednesday (today) pending the determination of a bail application filed
by his counsel.
Another High Court, sitting in Ahoada,
Rivers State, had on Monday granted the embattled lawmaker a bail which
the Peoples Democratic Party described as a “travesty of justice.”
Lloyd, who was appearing in court for
the second time since he had been in police detention, pleaded not
guilty to six counts of conspiracy, attempted murder, intent to maim,
disfigure and injure, unlawful grievous harm and willfully destroying of
government property.
Lead counsel for the Majority Leader,
Mr. Beluolisa Nwofor (SAN), had moved a motion for the bail application
for his client pursuant to Sections 118 sub-section 124 of the Criminal
Procedure Law of Rivers State.
Nwofor explained that his client
deserved bail and prayed the court to discountenance the
counter-affidavit filed by the police on the bail application.
He told the court that his client had
been in detention for over a week, a period, which he argued, had
surpassed the limit prescribed by the constitution.
“He (Lloyd) has been in police detention
for more than one week and this is against the stipulation of the
constitution. We plead that the court grants him bail,” Nwofor said.
The lawyer argued that a person was
deemed innocent until a competent court of law decides otherwise since
the charges against his client had nothing to do with armed robbery,
murder or felony.
He also prayed the court to grant Lloyd
bail based on self-recognition, arguing that his client willingly turned
himself in to the police.
However, the state Attorney-General and
Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Worgu Boms, succeeded in taking over the
prosecution of the matter from the police in line with Section 211 (1)
of the 1999 Constitution.
Boms, had, during the previous sitting,
declared his intention to take over the prosecution from the counsel for
the police, Mr. Donald De-Nwigwe.
But the court had raised objection to the attorney-general’s move on the grounds that Lloyd had not been arraigned.
The trial judge, however, ruled that the
attorney-general could take over the prosecution from De-Nwigwe, after
the Majority Leader had taken his plea.
Meanwhile, one of the counsel for Lloyd,
Mr. Emenike Ebete, has said that they decided to sue the Inspector
General Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, and claim N50bn as damages
following the inhuman treatment meted on his client.
Ebete, who spoke with newsmen in Port
Harcourt on Tuesday, said Lloyd was blindfolded, tortured and treated
like a common criminal by the police.
The counsel, who filed the suit against
police boss at a High Court in Ahoada on Monday, argued that the law
permitted Lloyd to claim damages from the police because his fundamental
human rights had been breached.Culled from Punch newspaper
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