The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the remand of Bayelsa blogger and self-acclaimed ex-agitator, Mr Mienpamo Onitsha Saint, at the Kuje Custodial Centre, over defamation against the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Major General Barry Ndiomu (Retd).
The defendant is standing trial on a three-count charge bordering on alleged willful libel, threat, causing danger and insult against the PAP Interim Administrator.
When the charges were read to him on Thursday at the commencement of the hearing, the accused person however pleaded not guilty.
The charges read in part, “That you Mienpamo Onitsha Saint of Imiringi Road, Yenagoa, sometimes in September 2023 within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did knowingly and intentionally sent a message/post by means of computer system network via your Facebook page ‘Mienpamo Onitsha Saint’ that vote of no confidence on Ndiomu as Amnesty Delegate strangled to death by Ndiomu Boys in Abuja which you know to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, ill will and needless anxiety to one Major General Barry Ndiomu (Retd) and thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 24 (1) (b) of the cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act 2015.
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“That you Mienpamo Onitsha Saint of Imiringi Road, Yenagoa sometime in September 2023 within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did knowingly and intentionally transmitted and caused the transmission of a communication through a computer system network via public Facebook page known as Bayelsa Focus Group that vote of no confidence on Ndiomu as Amnesty Delegate strangled to death by Ndiomu Boys in Abuja which is aimed at bullying, threatening and harassing the person of Major General Barry Ndiomu (Retd) and such communication has caused him fear of death, violence, bodily harm and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 24 (2) (a) of the cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act, 2015”.
The trial judge, Justice Emeka Nwite therefore adjourned the case till December 4, 2023, for continuation of trial.
