Court remands 60-year-old farmer, six others in Benue prison

A MAGISTRATE’S Court sitting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, on Tuesday remanded a 60- year-old farmer and five other in prison till next Monday for alleged criminal conspiracy, possession of arms and attempted culpable homicide.

Magistrate Cecilia Bakare ordered the suspect, one Okereke Aduma and five others to be remanded in prison until the adjourned date when she would rule in the application for bail by their counsel, Mr Dogara Abochi.

Other suspects are Okereke Omenka, Mike Okereke, Ede Silas, Ogbodo Aduma, Agu Ezekiel and Moses Eriba, who were charged for criminal conspiracy, criminal intimidation, theft and mischief by fire.

On interpreting the charges read to him by the court clerk, the elderly farmer broke down and started rolling on the floor in the presence of the magistrate, lamenting that those who were responsible for his son’s death have turned around to jail him.

According to the First Information Report, FIR, the police prosecution officer, Inspector Hyacinth Gbakor stated that a petition was written to the Inspector General of Police in Abuja by one Humphrey Onyeikwu, which was referred to the Zone 4 Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) where a group of persons armed with guns and combat axes, criminally conspired among themselves and burnt down two residential houses belonging to the family of one Mr ThankGod.

But the magistrate, having listen to the oral application of the suspects’ counsel and counter oral application of the prosecution officer, ordered that the accused be remanded in prison custody until August 31 when she would rule on the bail application.

The Guardian learnt that the suspects were arrested in April after two suspected cultists shot and killed the son of the farmer whose name was given as Arugu aka Kalu.

It was gathered that after the killing, some youths in the area went wild and burnt the houses of Messrs ThankGod Ede and Edim Idah. It was gathered that the Benue State Police Command had already investigated the matter and arrested two suspects in connection with the killing of the farmer’s son while the suspected trigger puller was at large.

Tragically for the farmer, he was also arrested for the disturbance and charged to court, leading to his journey to the prison yard.