Lecturer granted bail over alleged hate

A Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Kaduna has granted bail to an embattled Kaduna State University lecturer, Dr. John Danfulani, who was remanded in police custody on Friday over allegation of posting hate speech on Facebook social media.

Before gaining freedom yesterday, Danfulani was denied bail after he was detained by the police and subsequently charged to court.

Efforts to get his bail failed as the presiding magistrate Auwal Musa who sat on the matter at about 7pm on Friday ordered that he be remanded in police custody till Monday when the case came up for hearing.The case has been adjourned to March 7, 2016 for further mentioning.

Earlier, the prosecuting officer Ibrahim Jameel said, the prosecution team was yet to conclude its investigation because it fell on a weekend, saying, “It is an investigation that would be carried out not on the street of this town or homes of individuals but in corporate offices and none was operational at the weekends.

“This investigation involves telecommunication and service providers whose offices are always shut on weekends. It is an investigation that has to extend to an international corporate organization the Facebook, and can only be done through the local service providers.

“We are informing this court that we are about to start our investigation today (yesterday) we are therefore craving the court as earlier requested for three weeks within which we will round off our investigation.

“We also ask that the accused be remanded in police custody for the continuation of this investigation to enable the investigators easy access to the accused person in the event that he may be required to accompany the investigators to certain places.

“By so doing, we will be assured that our investigation will not be jeopardized because the subject of investigation is with us and closely monitored.”

Responding however, lead counsel to the accused person, Gamaliel Kore Esq who led other 13 counsels opposed vehemently the oral application by the prosecuting counsel for three weeks to conclude their investigation and for the accused person to be remanded within that period.

He argued that the prosecuting officer has failed to adhere to the court order given on Friday to conclude their investigation by the weekends but instead gave excuses without apology for their failure.

In his ruling, magistrate Musa, said, “ the alleged two count offence is bail-able ordinarily but carries three years prison term upon conviction.

He added: “The accused is admitted on bail to the sum of five million naira with two sureties who must be a civil servant not below the rank of a director. The sureties must submit two passport, government identification card, certificate of occupancy, bank statement of account, genuine and verifiable address of residence.”