Gist
General Overseer Arrested With Drugs Gets N2m Bail
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has granted bail to the General Overseer of Christ Living Hope Church, Reverend Ekwem Emmanuel Ugochukwu, arrested with drugs at Lagos airport days ago.
Naija News recalls that the self-proclaimed preacher was nabbed with 54 sticks of drugs wrapped around his body on the 7th of March, 2022 while on his way to a three-week crusade in Nairobi, Kenya.
Ekwem was apprehended by operatives of NDLEA during outward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Nairobi via Addis Ababa.
The clergyman was charged with one count of unlawful export of the banned drug.
He was first arraigned on 29 March.
The charge reads: “That you Ekwem Emmanuel Ugochukwu, male, adult, on or about the 7th day of March 2022 during the outward clearance of passengers of Ethiopia Airlines flight to Kenya at screening 1, Departure Hall of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja-Lagos, without lawful authority exported 40 grammes of Cannabis Sativa, a narcotic drug similar to Cocaine, Heroin, and LSD.”
The ruling, however, on the case after three weeks in detention, the presiding judge, Justice Daniel Osiagor, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N2 million with one surety after his “not guilty” plea to one count and adjourned the trial to June 26.
Osiagor ruled that the surety must be a director in a Federal or Lagos State government establishment.
The judge also ordered that the accused be remanded in NCoS custody till the perfection of his bail conditions.
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