A defendant, Hon. Precious Dawari B., has pleaded not guilty to one-count charge of advance fee fraud and was granted bail by a Federal High Court in Port-Harcourt.
The charge was read to the defendant before the presiding judge, Hon. Justice P.I. Ajoku, as he pleaded not guilty.
According to the charge, the defendant allegedly collected over N8million from persons on the promise they would be registered as members of Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI), a pro-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) support group.
On his plea, the prosecuting counsel, N. Orji, applied for date for the hearing while the defence counsel, E. C. Wiren, told the court that he had motion for bail.
When asked by the judge if she was opposed to the bail application, the prosecution said that she was not opposed to the bail application but added that condition for bail should be that the defendant appears in court.
The motion for bail was filed before the plea was taken.
The defence counsel told the court that the offence was bailable and that the suspect had been on administrative bail and urged the judge to grant the motion.
The defendant was in the dock at the hearing.
In her ruling, the judge said that bail was a constitutional right saying that the freedom of the defendant was temporary.
She also said that the grant of bail was discretionary and not bound by previous decision to exercise power to grant bail.
The judge granted the bail in the sum of N1million with two sureties.
The defence counsel told the court he was grateful.
The judge adjourned to 31 March for trial and ordered that the defendant be remanded in Port-Harcourt Correctional Centre.
