Kogi News:- Civil Servant Arraigned For Exposing Kogi Governor ’ s Abuja Residence

A civil servant is currently on trial in the
confluence state of Kogi after he exposed
images of the new residence of Governor
Bello.

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.