Three persons have been arraigned at a Magistrate Court sitting in Lokoja, Kogi State capital, for allegedly mounting illegal roadblocks, extortion, conspiracy, impersonation and engaging in illegal tax collection.<\/p>\n
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The court has, however, granted bail to the three accused persons.<\/p>\n
The three accused persons, Abbah Emmanuel, Umar Abubakar and Kingsley Danasabe, who were arrested by a vigilante group last week, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges read to them in the First Information Report.<\/p>\n
The three accused persons, who were arrested on November 13, 2024, along Federal University Lokoja, in Felele, were accused of illegally extorting money from motorists.<\/p>\n
Delivering his ruling, the Senior Magistrate, Court 1, Abdullahi Musa Mopa, granted the accused persons bail to the tune of N400,000 and two sureties in like some.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdditionally, the sureties must have traceable addresses within Lokoja, must be public servants within Grade Level 14 and must serve in reputable institutions in the state. The bail condition also includes the surety\u2019s having to produce their BVN, bank account, and NIM details,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The magistrate, however, adjoined the matter till December 11, 2024, for further mention.<\/p>\n
Counsel for the defendants, Mauzu Abbas, had pleaded no objection submission.<\/p>\n
He, however, cited Section 36(5) of the constitution as amended, as well as Section 156 of the Kogi State Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2017, that the defendants, having been in custody since November 13, urged the magistrate to exercise discretion in favour of the defendants to bail.<\/p>\n
In his response, Gabriel Otowu, for the prosecution, did not object to the bail but urged caution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we have no objection to the ball, we will urge your Lordship to be cautious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three persons have been arraigned at a Magistrate Court sitting in Lokoja, Kogi State capital, for allegedly mounting…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[364,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-12397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-court","9":"tag-kogi"},"yoast_head":"\n