A Kogi State Upper Area Court in Lokoja has ordered a rights activist and All Progressives Congress chieftain, Akwu Goodman, to be remanded in prison custody over an unlawful assembly and questioning the legitimacy of the election and subsequent inauguration of Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State in a protest letter to the state House of Assembly.
According to the prosecutor, Ajengbe Oluwayomi, the accused was alleged to have on March 19, “criminally conspired together and illegally led a protest to Kogi State House of Assembly complex.” The protest was said to be inciting members of the public against the governor as it alleged that Wada was illegally occupying the seat of power in Kogi Government House.
The prosecution further said the protesting group also published the same inciting information in a newspaper on March 24, 2014 (not Daily Trust) to cause disaffection and public disturbance in the state. He said leading the group under the aegis of ‘Association for Justice and Good Governance’ to the Assembly Complex, Akwu had called for implementation of the January 27 and February 17, 2012 Supreme Court judgement.
The prosecutor said according to Goodman, the judgment called for fresh elections in the five states whose governors’ tenures were illegally elongated. The group had described the election that brought Wada into office as a nullity and not recognised by the law and constitution of Nigeria.
Counsel to the accused, Williams Aliwo Esq. urged the court to grant bail to the accused and that the alleged offences were bailable, saying that the seriousness of a case ought not to be on the lips of the prosecutor but the law attached to the offence while bail was not the end of the matter.
But the prosecutor, Oluwayomi objected the bail on the ground that the offences were serious in nature and that police investigation in the matter was still on-going and applied for another date for mention.
President of the court, Clifford Oyelude, flanked by two other judges of the Upper Area Court denied the bail and ordered that Goodman be remanded in prison custody in Koton-Karfe and adjourned the case to April 22 for mention.
