Court remands Rivers guber aspirant, Dagogo, in correctional centre

A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt yesterday remanded the lawmaker representing Degema Bonny Federal Constituency, Farah Dagogo, in a Correctional facility in the city.
[ad]
Dagogo, who was visibly sick when he appeared in court, was lifted by hand into the courtroom by four policemen. He could not take his plea following which the trial judge, Justice Chiwendu Nworgu, ordered that he be remanded.

The matter was adjourned to Monday, May 16, 2022. Meanwhile, journalists were barred from covering the court proceeding. Prosecuting counsel, Chidi Eke, who spoke with The Guardian at the end of the court session, said Dagogo lay down all through the proceeding and was unable to speak

He said: “But unfortunately, as they have been saying, that he (Dagogo) is sick so they brought him on stretchers. He did not answer and did not take plea because he was lying down all through the proceedings.

“At the end of the day, what we did was to simply apply to the court that he should be remanded in the custody of the Correctional Centre and then adjourn while he will be having access to medical treatment until he is fit enough to stand the trial.”
[ad]
Earlier, Dagogo’s counsel, Innocent Ekwu, had threatened to issue a contempt of court on the police. He faulted the police for not granting the orders of a Federal High Court to release Dagogo, describing them as enemies of democracy.

“This is tyranny. This is an abuse of the law. This is arrogating to themselves authority that does not lie within them. We are calling on all relevant authorities in this country, especially the Inspector General of Police, to prevail on the Commissioner of Police in the state to release him immediately.

“It is our decision that if by 2.00pm today (Friday) they don’t produce him before the Federal High Court and release him, we shall file a contempt proceeding against the Commissioner of Police and all the persons named. We shall ask the court to commit them to prison so that they will go and test the very prison and they will meet themselves in the prison,” he said.
[ad]