The Federal High Court 2 sitting in Yenagoa has ordered the recall of the Department of State Services Investigating Officer, Frank Udo, and the Kogi State Commissioner for Information, Mr Kingsley Fanwo, to appear for further cross-examination in the ongoing trial of the Bayelsa news blogger.
Presiding Judge, Justice Awogboro Olawunmi, said the ordered appearance of the DSS officer and the Kogi Commissioner for Information was sequel to an application filed by the defence counsel for Saint Mienpamo, Benjamin S. Ogbara Esq. for recall of the witnesses.
Justice Olawunmi said the recall was in pursuant to Section 219 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, Section 36(6)(b) of the 1999 Constitution as amended and the Supreme Court case of Adisa v. Attorney General of Western Nigeria.
Only two witnesses had earlier testified against the owner of Naija Live TV, the Bayelsa-born popular blogger, Saint Mienpamo Onitsha.
Also an amendment of the charge against the blogger by the prosecution counsel, Victor Uchendu, was made in court.
Justice Olawunmi consequently ordered that those two prosecution witnesses for DSS be recalled for further cross-examination.
Meanwhile, defence counsel for Saint Mienpamo, Benjamin S. Ogbara Esq., called their last witness immediately the case was called up in continuation of the trial and subsequently closed its defence.
Justice Olawunmi, however, adjourned the case until October 22, 2020.
Recall that the DSS had arrested the Yenagoa-based news blogger, Mr Saint Mienpamo Onitsha, in May 2020 for allegedly publishing a fake report which purported that the N7bn COVID-19 isolation centre of Kogi State in the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, had collapsed.
The report, which was reportedly posted on the news blogger’s website on May 2, 2020, was captioned, ‘It costs us N7bn to build and equip the Kogi Isolation Centre for Covid-19, which rain destroyed.’
Credit: The Nation
