A Lagos High Court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) on Friday denied Frederick Nwajagu, the Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate in Lagos, bail.
Nwajagu, who was charged with alleged terrorism offenses, had applied for bail on medical grounds, citing that he is a flight risk.
However, Justice Yetunde Adesanya said the bail application was refused because of the seriousness of the alleged offense and the severity of its punishment.
Recall that Nwajagu was arrested in April by the Department of State Services (DSS) following a viral video allegedly implicating him in what the Lagos State Government claimed was a terror-related offense.
In the said video, he was reportedly seen threatening to invite members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to Lagos to secure the properties of Igbo people in the state.
The Lagos State Government, through the Ministry of Justice, in a suit marked LD/21505C/2023, is prosecuting the defendant on a nine-count charge bordering on an attempt to commit acts of terrorism, financing terrorism, participating in terrorism, and meeting to support a proscribed entity.
The state told Justice Adesanya that Nwajagu’s actions contravened the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act (2022).
Nwajagu on July 25 applied for bail through his counsel, Mr. Chino Obiagu, SAN.
Obiagu prayed the court to grant bail to the defendant on the grounds of his medical condition.
He said the defendant was a widower who had six children whom he would not abandon and therefore would not jump bail.
But prosecution counsel, Mr. Jonathan Ogunsanya, a Lagos State Deputy Director for Public Prosecutions, opposed him and prayed for an order for an accelerated hearing.
Ogunsanya said, among other things, that the circumstances under which the defendant was granted bail at the Lan lower court were different from the information filed against him at the high court.
At the offense hearing yesterday, the court declined Nwajagu’s application. It granted Ogunsanya’s prayer for an accelerated hearing of the case.
Justice Adesanya held: “Based on the seriousness of the offense, the severity of the punishment, and the proof of evidence before the court, the court is constrained to refuse the bail application.
“The application for an accelerated hearing is hereby granted.”
The judge, however, directed the correctional facility officials to make arrangements for Nwajagu to visit a government hospital for his treatment.
