Furious Judge Berates Prosecutor

Usman Alkali Baba
Inspector General of Police

More facts are emerging on how the case between the Inspector General of Police, IGP, has been mishandled and charges twisted by the prosecutor in what observers have referred to as a display of gross incompetence and lack of procedural diligence.

Contrary to insinuations that the Rector wanted to influence the outcome of the case, our correspondent reports that findings indicate otherwise in the court case between the IGP and Edet Okpo, an Akwa Ibom based journalist.

The academy described an online report on the case FHC/CA/51c/2020 as false and capable of misleading members of the public and faulted an attempt to present it and the Rector as being behind the legal ordeal of the accused.

A member of the legal team of the Academy who spoke with media men in Uyo, described the online news report on the matter as blatant falsehood published to give a misleading impression to the public.

Describing the Rector as one who believes in the rule of law, he (Rector) made formal complaint to the Police and sought protection under the law against blackmail, threats and attempts to extort money from him by reporting to the police following which the IGP acted by getting the matter investigated and the suspects arrested for prosecution.

The lawyer stated further that the life of the case has not terminated on account of the overruling on jurisdiction as the IGP could still refile the matter for a fresh trial relying on the initial outcomes of a police investigation on the matter.

One of the MAN Legal representatives expressed shock on the conduct of the police prosecutor for not being diligent with the matter despite attempts in the open court to direct him properly. According to him, the prosecutor filed charges which were not originally listed in the complainant’s  thereby twisting the expected outcomes on the matter.

Speaking on the spurious online publication on the matter, the lawyer said “The news article was written with a view to misinform the general public on the facts that transpired at the Federal High Court sitting in Calabar presided over by Honourable Justice Rosemary Oghoghorie on the 18th day of May, 2022.

Our reporter gathered that the Court in its ruling over a preliminary objection challenging the territorial jurisdiction of the Court, struck out the charges filed by the Inspector General of Police against Edet Okpo.

In the lawyer’s words “It is instructive that our Rector,  a nominal complainant sometime in 2020 made a complaint to the Nigeria Police Force, Zone 6 Calabar, as it is his right to do as a citizen, against an unknown person who attempted to blackmail him and threatened to publish some false story, which the Rector dared the blackmailer to go ahead and publish before reporting the matter to the Police”.

“The Nigeria Police Force did a diligent and very thorough job and in the course of their investigation by tracking the telephone number to the Security man of the said Edet Okpo (the Defendant) and further tracked the Itel telephone used in the alleged crime to the blood sister of the Defendant.

“It is strange that out of the millions of MTN subscribers in Nigeria with about the same number of different GSM telephone handsets, the SIM card/telephone number and the phone used in the alleged cyber stalking and attempts to extort the Rector was tracked to the security man and sister of Edet Okpo respectively”, the lawyer wondered.

“From the records of proceedings, it is clear that Honourable Justice Rosemary Oghoghorie handled this matter with such grace and fervor that speaks boldly about her stellar record as a judge. However, due to the territorial jurisdiction raised by the defense lawyer, the Court’s hands were tied and the matter was struck out on the grounds of territorial jurisdiction”.

“It is pertinent to note that a matter that is struck out by any court neither removes nor absolve a defendant from the alleged crime but only gives the police the opportunity to refile the said suit in the appropriate jurisdiction. The faceless people behind the write-up are merely trying to mislead the public by presenting a false narrative by trying to insinuate that the matter has been struck out”

“The Rector declined to join issues with the writer on this matter as same has not been dismissed but only struck out due to the poor conduct of the prosecutor. The Rector is still consulting with his lawyers as to the way forward and challenges the writer to publish the ruling of the court to enable the public to form an informed opinion as to what has transpired in this matter so far”

Explaining how the matter has been carelessly handled the Layer said “ASP Alexander A. Ewa Esq may have deliberately bungled the case as one of his actions was that after granting administrative bail to the Defendant’s security man and sister who were initially charged as co-defendants in this matter, jumped police bail and even after charging them to Court, failed to take steps to either re-arrest the said persons or bring their sureties to the station to produce them”.

“Furthermore, it is clear that the Rector at all material times was oblivious of the fact that the said charge was amended and the details contained in it. There was never a time that the Defendant was accused of Defamation or Advance Fee Fraud, and all the testimonies given by the Rector did not reflect or suggest any of these; hence is it shocking to discover that the prosecutor amended the charges and included Defamation and Advance Fee Fraud. The prosecutor also phrased the charges in the charge sheet in such a way that would make any honorable judge furious as to how the same was drafted”.

Instructively, the shocked lawyer stated “At some point in open Court, the judge gave the prosecutor opportunities to deploy the right approach in the matter, which led the judge to lambast the prosecutor, because he was becoming irritating to everyone in court; however, the Prosecutor still failed even though he had ample time to do the needful”.

The Academy lawyer revealed that “The Rector had received prior warnings on the antecedents of the prosecutor but he chose to trust the Police to deliver on the matter, regrettably, his action has proven that the prosecutor is not to be trusted”

We gathered that the Rector is however confident that the Police authority would look into this matter when he petitions the prosecutor soon because it is clear to right-thinking individuals that the prosecutor acted very unprofessionally in the handling of the case” the lawyer said.

As it stands, the last has not been heard on this Cyber Crime case involving a journalist and the IGP as the issue of jurisdiction on which the matter is hinged is very likely to be looked into again by a competent court as hinted by the Rector’s legal team.