A Lagos High Court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square on Friday refused to grant bail to Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate, Lagos State, Frederick Nwajagu, charged with terrorism.

According to Justice Yetunde Adesanya, the court is constrained to refuse Mr Nwajagu’s bail application based on the seriousness of the alleged offence and the severity of its punishment.

On Friday, the judge denied the defendant bail and ordered an accelerated hearing of the case.

Ms Adesanya held: “Based on the seriousness of the offence, the severity of the punishment and the proof of evidence before the court, the court is constrained to refuse the bail application.

“The application for an accelerated hearing is hereby granted.”

The judge, however, directed correctional centre officials to arrange for the defendant to visit a public hospital for treatment.

Mr Nwajagu is standing trial on a nine-count charge bordering on an attempt to commit terrorism, financing terrorism, participating in terrorism and meeting to support a proscribed entity.

On July 25, the defendant applied for bail, citing his medical reports.

He said that he was not a flight risk.

At the last adjourned date, counsel to the defendant, E. C. Obiagu (SAN), prayed the court to grant bail to the defendant on medical grounds.

He also told the court that the defendant was a widower with six children and would not jump bail.

Mr Obiagu claimed that the defendant did not possess an international passport and would not be a flight risk.

The senior advocate of Nigeria also said a lower court granted the defendant bail but could not perfect the bail due to its stringent conditions.

Responding, Jonathan Ogunsanya, prosecution counsel, urged the court to refuse the bail application.

However, Mr Ogunsanya, Lagos State Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, urged the court to grant an accelerated case hearing.

He said, among other things, that the circumstances under which the defendant was granted bail at the lower court differed from the information filed against him at the high court.

He argued that the charges brought against the defendant by the police at the lower court were materially different from those brought against him by the state attorney general.

Operatives of State Security Service (SSS) arrested Mr Nwajagu over an alleged threat to invite members of the Indigenous People of Biafra to Lagos to secure the property of Igbo people in the state.

(NAN)