Skip to main content

#RevolutionNow: Court Discharges, Acquits Two Journalists In Calabar

A magistrate court sitting in Calabar, Cross River State, and presided over by Chief Magistrate Rita Marshall on Tuesday discharged and acquitted two journalists for alleged misconduct in the RevolutionNow protest of August 5, 2019.

Three charges bordering on conspiracy to unlawfully assemble, unlawful assembly and conduct likely to cause a breach of public peace were preferred against Jonathan Ugbal and Jeremiah Archibong, who serve as News Editor and Managing Editor of CrossRiverWatch, an online news platform following their arrest.


The duo were arraigned on August 7, 2019 and after a lengthy trial with dramatic sequences, the defense counsel, Kehole Enya, filed a no case to answer application adopted on July 15, 2020, which the court upheld on Tuesday.

Magistrate Marshall held that the prosecution had “woefully and helplessly” failed to establish a prima facie case against the defendants to warrant them to enter a defense and subsequently discharged and acquitted the duo.

Reacting to the ruling of the court, Mr Enya said, “Today’s ruling is victory for justice and for our democracy. If our democracy must thrive, then we must fight tyranny till the end. This victory today, supports the course of justice.”

See Also

Journalism

#RevolutionNow: Judge Refuses To Give Final Ruling On Case Of Journalists Arrested In Cross River


Enya, who said he was confident the prosecution had no case, urged civic space actors to remain steadfast even as he hoped that the judiciary will “rise to their responsibility of being the hope of the common man and rise up to duty calls”.

For the second defendant, Mr Archibong, this was “victory of truth over lies, light over darkness and press freedom over repression”.

Archibong averred that it was clear that there were attempts to “stifle the press and silent the voice of dissents”.

He, however, expressed optimism that it was clear there was a stronger will to “reclaim the shrinking civic space in Cross River, the Niger Delta and Nigeria at large”.
 

ACTIVISM

Human Rights

Legal

News

AddThis

Original Author

SaharaReporters, New York

Disable advertisements

from 24HRSNEWS
via 24HRSNEWS



from EDUPEDIA247https://ift.tt/31ozVBJ
via EDUPEDIA

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nigerian Academy Of Science Inducts First Female President

The Nigerian Academy of Science has inducted a professor of Parasitology/Epidemiology, Ekanem Ikpi Braide, as its 19th President on Thursday. In a statement issued by Oladoyin Odubanjo, the Executive Secretary of the Academy, Braide is the Academy’s first female President in 44 years of existence. It read, “Braide was a member of the national committee that achieved the laudable feat of guinea worm eradication in Nigeria. “She has a rich professional experience as a researcher and an administrator. In July 2010, Professor Braide was honoured by the President of Nigeria with the award of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) for her contribution to disease control in Nigeria. “She was nominated by the Honourable Minister of Health to serve in the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Health Sector Response (MEACoC-HSR). “Professor Braide served as Vice-Chancellor, Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) Calabar, Nigeria (2004 to 2009) and as P

NLNG Signs Letter Of Intent On Delayed Gas Expansion Project

The Nigerian Natural Liquefied Gas LTD has signed a letter of intent for the engineering, procurement and construction of its long held up Train Seven project. In a statement released by the company on Wednesday, it said that the $10bn project will be executed by a consortium of Italian firm Saipem, Japan’s Chiyoda and South Korea’s Daewoo. The statement reads, “The project will form part of the investment of over $10bn including the upstream scope of the LNG value chain, thereby boosting the much needed Foreign Direct Investment profile of Nigeria.” Managing Director of NLNG, Tony Atta, said in 2018 that the Final Investment Decision would be made in the fourth quarter of that year. This did not however, materialize. According to the release, the project will have a four to five-year execution time after the signing of the FID. The project is expected to add an extra 8 million tons per annum of gas to the 22 mtpa currently exported by the company. Oil News AddThis : 

Former Maritime Agency Boss, Buba Galadima, Accuses AMCON Of Witch-hunt After Property Takeover

  A former Director-General of the Nigeria Maritime Agency, Buba Galadima, has accused the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria of witch-hunt after the agency took possession of his business and assets on Tuesday in Abuja. Galadima, an ardent critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, claimed that he did not borrow money or have unpaid debt with Unity Bank, which lodged a complaint against him and occasioned AMCON’s move on Tuesday. The properties taken over include House No. 15, Addis Ababa Crescent, Wuse Zone 4, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and House No. 4, Bangui Street, Wuse 2, also in Abuja.  Reacting to the situation, Galadima said, “This is an attempt to disgrace and break me down. This is injustice and an attempt to humiliate me. "But I am unbreakable and they can never silence me. They sacked me and over 50 people that sleep in the apartment. "We don’t know where to go. We will remain on the streets. We will remain on the streets until God provi