Linus Okorie, the Ebonyi South Senatorial candidate of the Labour Party, LP, was remanded in the Abakaliki High Court on Tuesday.
Okorie was charged with five counts in court, including fake news, murder, harboring drug traffickers, and two other charges.
Chinagorom Ndubuaku, the police prosecutor who brought the charges against the former member of the Federal House of Representatives, stated that the defendant had been on the police wanted list for committing various crimes.
Mr. Chika Nomeh, the defendant’s lead counsel, told reporters shortly after the court that “some of the charges rob the magistrate of the jurisdiction to entertain and grant bail, and as a result, the magistrate remanded him (Okorie) in the Nigerian Correction Centre.”
“We already have the details of the charges, and we objected to the reading of the charges in front of the court because, in our humble opinion, it constitutes an abuse of the court processes.”
“There is a Federal High Court judgment by Honourable Justice Ekwo that restrained the Nigeria Police and the state government from arresting Linus Okorie, and the judgment on the same subject matter is still pending.”
“We filed an objection, which was overruled.” The charges are intended to keep him (Okorie) behind bars. Our client is the Labour Party’s (LP) leading senatorial candidate for Ebonyi South senatorial zone. The point of all of this is to weaken him and his supporters, but in the end, the law will take its toll,” he said.
The Presiding Judge, Magistrate Linda Ogodo, ruled that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case and thus remanded him to the Abakaliki Correctional Centre.
The case was postponed until November 2022 for further consideration.