The police on Friday arraigned a woman, Folashade Olalude, before the Ebute-Metta Chief Magistrate Court over alleged cyberbullying and threat to kill a businessman.
The defendant who was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Olwatosin Fowowe-Erusiafe is facing four counts bordering on conspiracy, intent to steal, cyberbullying and threat to kill, preferred against her by the police.
The prosecutor, Mr. Henry Obiazi, told the court that the defendant and others now at large, between 2015 and 2022, conspired among themselves to commit the alleged offences.
Obiazi told the court that the defendant, with an intent to steal, demanded over N5m, on different occasions from one Alhaji Lawal Abdullateef, with threats of injury or publishing his name on the Internet as a fraudster or using bloggers’ websites to defame his character and the reputation of his Nollywood actress wife, Lizzy Anjorin, if the demands were not met.
He also told the court that the defendant had, sometime in October 2023, written a letter to the businessman, threatening to kill him, adding that the defendant equally sent the same threat message to Abdullateef’s phone.
According to the prosecutor, the offences committed contravened Sections 411, 301, and 232 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.
However, the defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against her.
Following her plea of not guilty, the prosecutor urged the court to remand her in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services, pending the determination of the charges against her.
But the defendant’s lawyer, I. S. Ijenkeri, pleaded with the court to admit the defendant to bail in the most liberal terms, saying that the charges against her were bailable.
After listening to the submissions of both lawyers, Magistrate Fowowe-Ersiafe, in her ruling, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N200,000, with two sureties in like sum.
The magistrate, however, ordered that the defendant be remanded at the Kirikiri female section of the NCS facility, pending when she would meet the bail conditions.
Magistrate Fowowe-Ersiafe subsequently adjourned the matter until March 14, 2024, for trial.
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
