By Olufemi Atoyebi
The Nigeria Police Force has re-arraigned the one hundred and thirteen foreign nationals who are facing charges which include: conspiracy, unlawful access to data, marketing scam, computer related fraud, money laundering and illegal immigration before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The suspects were arraigned before Justice Okerete Akpan of the Federal High Court 13, with case suit number FHC/ABJ/CR/599/2024, following their arrest at Jahi a suburb in the Federal Capital territory.
The defendants’ counsel Ogwu Onojah SAN, in his prayer on Friday before the court, sought adjournment for the hearing till 27th day of November 2024 arguing that the names which his clients submitted to the prosecuting team were not in tandem with the ones on their official documents.
“My lord during ‘our know your clients relations’, we discovered that the names the defendants gave the prosecuting team are different from the names on their travelling documents, this error occurred due to language barrier between my clients and the police, as there were no interpreters with them when they were arrested. This could hamper the smooth running of the proceedings before this honourable court,” onojah stated.
The prosecuting team led by Barrister Egwu Anthony while aligning with the defendants counsel on the need for adjournment of the case to give room for fair hearing said the suspects need to effect the correction of their names with the prosecuting team for it to align with the names on the charge sheet.
Barrister Anthony however prayed that the court remand the suspects at the correctional centre.
“The suspects need to be transferred to a correctional facility due to their large numbers, they are overpopulated in the police custody” He noted
The Presiding judge, Justice Okerete Akpan adjourned the case to November 29, 2024 and that the suspects be remanded at Kuje correctional centre, Abuja Suleja correctional centre, Minna Niger state respectively.
Credit: Police Academy Facebook Page
