A 37-year-old woman, Alice Benjamin, was brought to Port-Harcourt Magistrate Court presided by Senior Magistrate Lenu S. Baridam to face one count charge of assault on Monday.
The 37-year-old woman who is defendant in the case allegedly assaulted one Elizabeth Okoreaffia by giving her fist blows on her face and hitting her face with a heavy iron rod which allegedly caused harm to complainant in the case.
When the case came up for hearing on Monday, the one count charge of assault was read to the defendant but she pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The one count charge read: “That you, Alice Benjamin, ‘f’, on the 20th day of November, 2019 at No. 13, Nembe Street, Borikiri, Port-Harcourt in the Port-Harcourt Magisterial District did unlawfully assaulted one Elizabeth Okoreaffia by giving her fist blows all over her face and also used an heavy iron rod to hit her on the face which caused her harm and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 355 of the Criminal Code, Cap 37, Law of Rivers State of Nigeria, 1999”.
Addressing the court, counsel for the defendant made an application for bail for his client saying since the matter was within the court’s jurisdiction, the court should use its discretion to grant the defendant bail.
The defence counsel said his client would not jump bail saying that she was ready to face trial.
The prosecutor in the case, Inspector Ochogwu Wilberforce, said he was not opposed to the application for bail by defendant’s counsel.
In her ruling, presiding Senior Magistrate Baridam granted the application for bail for defendant in the sum of three hundred thousand naira (N300,000.00) with surety and adjourned the case to 4 December, 2019.
In an interview outside the courtroom, a lawyer in the defence team, Barrister Blessing Iringe, said that there was a misunderstanding between her client and the complainant in the case saying that her client was slapped by the complainant and she “retaliated” by slapping back the complainant.
She said the court has jurisdiction to try the case.
On his part, counsel for the complainant, Barrister Chika Iwedi, said that the matter was a case of assault which allegedly “caused grievous body harm” to his client.
He said that his client is a widow, saying that the defendant was charged to court to face the law.
The defendant was arraigned on Monday on charge Number PMC/2246C/2019 between Commissioner of Police and Alice Benjamin, ‘f’, aged 37 years.
