The police in Lagos have arraigned a middle-aged woman, Folashade Olalude, before an Ebute-Metta Chief Magistrate Court for allegedly threatening to kill a businessman, Alhaji Lawal Abdullateef.
Police officers from the Force Criminal Investigation Department Force (CID) docked Olalude before Magistrate Olabisi Fowowe-Erusiafe on a three-count charge of conspiracy, theft and cyberbullying.
The prosecutor, Henry Obiazi, informed the court that the defendant and others, now at large, had between 2015 and 2022, conspired among themselves to commit the alleged offences.
Obiazi claimed that the defendant, with intent to steal, demanded over N5 million on different occasions from Abdullateef to blackmail and defame him and his wife, Lizzy Anjorin, as a fraudster on the internet, if he failed to pay the money.
The prosecutor also told the court that the defendant, sometime in October 2023, wrote a letter to the businessman, threatening to kill him, adding that the defendant sent the same threat message to Alhaji Lawal Abdullateef’s phone.
Obiazi said the offences contravened sections 411, 301 and 232 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 and were punishable under the same laws.
The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge when it was read to her.
Following her plea, the prosecutor urged the court to fix a trial date and also remanded her in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS), pending the conclusion of the trial.
But the defence lawyer, Israel Ijenkeri, pleaded with the court to admit the defendant to bail in the most liberal terms, saying that the charges against her were bailable.
After listening to the lawyers, Chief Magistrate Fowowe-Ersiafe, in her ruling, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum, among other conditions.
She adjourned the case to March 14, 2024 for the commencement of the trial.
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