In the defamation suit filed by the police on behalf of lawmaker Joel Thomas Onowakpor, Magistrate Edith Anumadu of Court 3, Asaba Magistrate Court, on Tuesday granted a request for police protection for journalist Tega Oghenedoro, popularly known as Fejiro Oliver, over an assassination scare.

Ms Anumadu gave the order “in the interest of justice and for the safety of the defendant,” to enable him to appear in court on the next adjourned date.

Inibehe Effiong, lawyer to Mr Oliver, who was absent from court on Tuesday, told the court that unknown assailants who identified themselves as police officers had shown up at his client’s office premises on two different occasions.

The incidents, he said, have forced his client to go into hiding for fear of being abducted or killed.

Peoples Gazette had earlier reported how some police officers stormed the journalist’s office in Abuja last week in an attempt to abduct him.

The policemen identified themselves as officers from the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), a department of the Nigeria Police Force led by Jonathan Towuru, a Deputy Inspector General of Police.

Mr Oliver on Tuesday also told The Gazette that some masked assailants were seen around his office premises on Monday, an incident that has since forced him into hiding.

Meanwhile, in another defamation suit filed by the police on behalf of businesswoman Stella Okotete, Magistrate Patricia Onyeisi Okoh of Court 2, Asaba Magistrate Court, on Tuesday issued a bench warrant against Mr Oliver due to the journalist’s absence from court.

Ms Okoh rejected a plea by Mr Effiong, lawyer to Mr Oliver, after the legal practitioner noted that his client was in hiding due to an alleged threat to his life.

Mr Oliver had appeared before Ms Okoh last week. During the proceedings, Mr Effiong requested that the cases be consolidated before Ms Okoh and Ms Anumadu.

Mr Oliver was abducted by policemen from his office in Abuja in September and flown to Delta State on the order of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori. Following his abduction, he was detained at a police facility for weeks before he was arraigned in court and remanded in prison after pressure from civil society organisations. He was later released after meeting his bail conditions.

Mr Oliver is facing multiple defamation charges in four different courtrooms in Delta State. He is being prosecuted in Courts 2 and 3 of the Asaba Magistrate Court and in two separate courtrooms at the Federal High Court in Asaba.