A teenager, Miss Charlotte Delhi, facing charges of alleged cyber stalking and blackmail before the Federal High Court Yenagoa has been granted bail.
The DSS, in suit number FHC/YNG/33C/2021, had filed a one-count charge against the defendant alleging that she engaged in cyber stalking with intention of blackmail which is contrary to section 24(2)c and punishable under subparagraph (b) of the cybercrime (prohibition , prevention etc) Act,2015.
She was alleged to have shared the nude video of a former Permanent Secretary of the State Ministry of Education, Dr. Walton Liverpool on social media.
At the resumed sitting on Thursday, counsel to the defendant, Andrew Arthur moved for the bail application which was not opposed by the prosecution counsel and Principal Legal Officer of the Department of State Security (DSS), Victor Uchedu.
Before the bail application was moved, the presiding judge, Justice Isa Hamma Adama Dashen, had to stand down the case when it was called and the defendant was not in the court.
He agreed to stand down the case for both prosecution and defence counsel to make calls to the Nigerian Correctional Centre to know why the defendant has not been brought to court.
Eventually when the case was called and, after hearing the positions of the two counsels on the bail, he granted the defendant bail to the tune of N5million and a surety with landed property in like sum in the jurisdiction of the state.
He, however, ordered for commencement of trial and the prosecution opened its case with Dr Liverpool as the first witness.
Under cross examination by the prosecution counsel, Liverpool narrated how he was contacted on the night of September 14, 2021 by a strange number with a message that “there is a special package for him.”
According to him, the sender of the message using a collective pronoun “we” demanded N15 million if he did not want them to upload his nude video on social media.
He told the court how they told him that if the video gets uploaded he (Liverpool) would suffer embarrassment in the state.
Liverpool told the court he pleaded with them to take N1 million as he is a retired civil servant that does not have the kind of money they are demanding.
He took the court through a series of conversations he had with the blackmailers until they dropped their demand to N5 million and when they eventually uploaded the video and tagged prominent Bayelsans prompting him to petition the Commissioner of Police and the Director of the DSS to commence investigation.
The prosecution after cross-examination tendered a computer printout of the WhatsApp conversation between Liverpool and the alleged blackmailers requesting it to be admitted as exhibit.
This was, however, opposed by the counsel to the defendant who argued that the exhibit being tendered is in violation of Section 84 subsection 2and 3 of the Evidence Act.
Justice Dashen, adjourned till November 9th, 2021 to rule on the issue whether the exhibit is to be admitted by the court or not.
