A Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Effurun, Delta State, on Tuesday, ordered the remand of a middle-aged man, Godlove Meba, in the Warri Custodial Centre for allegedly blackmailing the founder of Christ Mercyland Deliverance Ministry, Prophet Jeremiah Fufeyin.
The Chief Magistrate, Mrs Afonughe Edewor, ordered that the suspect be remanded till June 21, 2022, pending legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
The ruling was sequel to a motion ex parte filed by the prosecution counsel, Miss Bibiana Aigbojie, seeking the transfer of the case file to the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice for legal advice.
A five-count charge had earlier been slammed on Meba, who was said to have conspired with a blogger and others now at large, between March 26 and May 28, 2022, to use an electronic device to upload on the Internet the photograph of a missing child, Testimony, while accusing Fufeyin of being privy to the whereabouts of the child in South Africa.
The accused person was alleged to have also claimed that Fufeyin wanted to kill the mother of the child, and that the cleric had been boasting that he had all the money to buy over every blogger in the country, including the father of the missing child.
The accused, who claimed to be a Cameroonian, could not provide any legal representation at the court’s proceeding, saying he had no relatives to stand for him.
Speaking with journalists after the court session, Meba stated that he regretted his action.
He also claimed that an unnamed person instigated him against Fufeyin.
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