• As Federal High Court Grants Him Bail Few Hours Later

A Magistrate Court in Owerri, the Imo State capital, yesterday, ordered that an Owerri based legal practitioner, Chinedu Agu be remanded in the Owerri Correctional Center.

Barr Agu, whose proposed arraignment on Wednesday was hindered because the court didn’t sit, was detained on Tuesday when he responded to a police invitation for the second time within seventy two hours.

He was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Obinna Njemanze, on Thursday.

The Magistrate declined a bail application moved by Agu’s lead counsel, M.O Nlemadim, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of the State.

The Magistrate who declared jurisdiction to try the matter, ordered that Agu be remanded in the Owerri Correctional Center pending the next step to be taken in the matter.

Agu, a former General Secretary of Nigeria Bar Association, Owerri branch, was arraigned by the police on charges of alleged cyber stalking, defamation of character and conduct likely to cause a breach of public peace.

The police, however, relied on some of the views he published about governance, public interest and the judicial system in the state to unleash the charges on him. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges leveled against him while also alleging that the charges were entirely false. 

Meanwhile, while Barr Agu was being arraigned at the Magistrate Court, some senior lawyers led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Stanley Imo were at the Federal High Court Owerri, to file an application for his bail on grounds of a “matter of urgency”.

The application for bail was granted by the court.

When contacted, the Senior Advocate said, “yes. I did the matter in the morning at the federal High Court in Owerri and left. The application was granted and I left the court. Some lawyers were perfecting the court processes when I left.

Confirming the federal High Court pronouncement, a professor of law and a former chairman of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, said that the court order for Agu’s release was awaiting execution to ensure Agu’s production and release.

Odinkalu wrote “The Federal High Court in Owerri has granted an order admitting lawyer, Chinedu Agu to bail. 

“The application, filed by a legal team led by Stanley Imo, SAN, was taken and granted today as a matter of urgency.

“The warrant is awaiting execution to ensure his production and release.”