Mr Don Norman Obinna, the owner and editor-in-chief of online news outlet The Realm News, who was arrested on March 1 by police in Umuahia, the capital of Nigeria’s southeastern Abia state, while he was at local radio station Flo FM to discuss politics on air, has spoken from the Afara Ibeku Prison in Umuahia, Abia state.
Mr Obinna who spoke in a telephone interview to Abia Facts Newspaper, said that his oppressors have added a trumped-up and baseless charge of kidnapping against him, to enable them continue keeping him in prison despite being eligible for bail by the Federal High Court in Umuahia.
Mr Don Norman who was arrested while on a radio program on Flo fm in Umuahia, on the alleged orders of his former principal, Senator Theodore Ahamefula Orji, for alleged ‘Cyber stalking’ has been in the Afara Prison since his arrest after being remanded on the orders of a magistrate.
Mr Don Norman who spoke in a brief interaction, said that the mental stability of the attorney, who was arranged for him has been in serious doubt by him, stating that the arguments put together by his attorney are not sufficient enough, making him doubt the credibility of the process that brought up such attorney. He also pointed out the fact that his attorney may have been arranged to enable his oppressors have their way through the technicalities of the law.
When contacted, the attorney who identified himself as Uzosike Bam said that his client was arraigned before a magistrate court in Umuahia yesterday the 7th of March 2019. In his words “We had a very persuasive argument, however, the court refused to assume Jurisdiction. So the next thing now is to approach the federal high court – a court of higher jurisdiction, to get bail for him, as directed by the magistrate court. So we will be going to the prison to get statements from him, so that we can file a case for him to be granted bail .
They also framed a charge against him, of Kidnapping and terrorism as if he had anything to do with that. The fact of the matter is that that matter was not included in the original case that was filed against him, and it wasn’t in the jurisdiction of the court to decide that.”
When asked about his fitness and capacity to handle the case, he said ” I want to believe that that was an opinion, and everyone is free to have an opinion of me. But like I said, I made a highly persuasive argument in court to warrant his bail, but due to the court not having the jurisdiction to grant him bail, we were referred to the Federal High Court.
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