A Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa on Thursday granted bail to a teenage girl facing trial for cybercrime by the Department of State Services (DSS).
The DSS
on Monday arraigned the teenager before the court for circulating the nude
video of a retired Bayelsa permanent secretary on social media.
In the
one-count charge, prosecuting counsel, Mr Victor Uchendu, told the court that
the accused engaged in cyber-stalking by circulating the retiree’s nude picture
on a Whatspp group.
Ruling on
the bail application filed by Counsel to the Defendant, Mr Andrew Arthur, the
trial judge, Justice I.H. Ndahen admitted her to bail to the sum of N5 million
and one surtee in like sum who must have landed property in Yenagoa.
Proceeding
into the trial, Prosecuting counsel Mr Victor Uchendu led the retired Permanent
Secretary who had written a petition to the DSS in evidence before the court.
In his
evidence, the retired Permanent Secretary, Dr Walton Liverpool, 60 narrated his
ordeal in the hands of yet to be identified blackmailers who demanded the sum
of N15 million or have the nude video published.
He said
that the blackmailers had approached him with his nude video which he believes
was recorded on the day he had sexual intercourse with the defendant at a
popular after in Yenagoa.
The
witness told the court that he met the defendant on Facebook on August 23 and
they mutually agreed to meet the next day at the hotel !located in Opolo
area of Yenagoa.
Liverpool
said that on examining the nude video, he could identify the decour of the
hotel room where he mat the defendant and suspected her to have made the video.
He said
that the video was 'dehumanising and embarrassing', a development that
compelled him to offer N 1 million but the blackmailers reduced their demand
from N15 million to N5 million.
According
to him, the experience was so traumatic that he contemplated committing suicide
as the video was circulated amongst his family, friends and prominent people in
and outside Bayelsa government.
When
Uchendu applied to tender a print-out of the transcript of the Whatsapp chat
Liverpool had with the blackmailers, Defense Counsel, Andrew opposed the
application on the grounds of discrepancies in the device used to receive the
messages.
He said
that while the witness told the court that the chat messages were received on
his Samsung A5 mobile phone, the compliance certificated tendered by the DSS to
made the electronic evidence admissible read Samsung A7.
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