A woman, Folashade Olalude, has been arraigned before the Ebute-Metta Chief Magistrate Court in Lagos over alleged cyberbullying and threat to kill Alhaji Lawal Abdullateef, the husband of Nollywood actress, Lizzy Anjorin.
Olalude was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Olwatosin Fowowe-Erusiafe on four counts bordering on conspiracy, intent to steal, cyberbullying and threat to kill, preferred against her by the police.
The police prosecutor, Henry Obiazi, told the court that the defendant and others now at large, between 2015 and 2022, conspired among themselves to commit the alleged offences.
According to the prosecutor, the defendant and her accomplices demanded over N5 million on different occasions from the complainant with threats of injury or publishing his name on the internet as a fraudster or using bloggers’ websites to defame his character and the reputation of his actress wife, Lizzy Anjorin, if the demands were not met.
Obiazi further told the court that the defendant sometime in October 2023, wrote a letter to the businessman, threatening to kill him, and the defendant equally sent the same threat message to Abdullateef’s phone.
He said the offences contravened Sections 411, 301, and 232 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.
When the charges were read to her, the defendant pleaded not guilty.
Following her ‘not guilty’ plea, the prosecutor urged the court to remand the defendant in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services, pending the determination of the charges against her.
However, the defence lawyer, I. S. Ijenkeri, pleaded with the court to admit the defendant to bail in the most liberal terms, saying that the charges against her were bailable.
After listening to both counsels, Magistrate Fowowe-Ersiafe, in her ruling, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N200,000, with two sureties in like sum.
The magistrate, however, ordered that the defendant be remanded at the Kirikiri female section of the NCS facility, pending when she would meet the bail conditions.
The magistrate adjourned the matter until March 14, 2024, for trial.