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The Federal High Court sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State has given stringent bail conditions to Prince Olamilekan Hammed, blogger and publisher of eaglesforesight.com.ng over reports on Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun.
Hammed was arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) in connection with a report on how Abiodun was jailed in 1986 for credit card fraud in Miami-Dade, Florida, USA.
His news website had republished a report about the criminal records of Abiodun.
The blogger, through his lawyer, Festus Ogun filed for bail on May 27 pending the determination of the trial.
In his ruling, the court awarded the blogger N3 million (Three Million Naira) with 2 sureties in the sum of N1,000,000.00 (One Million Naira) each.
It also ruled that Hammed must provide a surety who is a civil servant on Grade Level 15 in the Federal, State or Local Government Area within the Abeokuta metropolis.
The other surety, the court ruled, must be the owner of an established business within Abeokuta and the two sureties must be owners of properties in the metropolis.
The court added, “The sureties shall deposit title documents with the Registrar of this Court during the pendency of this trial.
“The sureties and the Defendant himself shall have their homes, office/business addresses, their banking details, both personal and business, and all their telephone numbers verified by the Registrar of this Honourable Court.
“The surety (Business man) shall deposit his Corporate Affairs Commission Business Registration Certificate while the Civil Servant shall deposit his/her International passport with the Registrar of this Court to be held during the pendency of this trial.”
Abiodun, according to the report, was said to have used a pseudo name (Shawn Michael Davids) with the aim of concealing his criminal identity.
The record revealed that Abiodun was jailed for committing criminal offences which bordered on credit card fraud, petty theft and cheque forgery.
He was arrested on November 7, 1986, for fighting and injuring a police officer in an attempt to resist arrest.
While being processed at the station, his fingerprints were run through the crime database and it was discovered that the Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun being processed for detention was the same as Shawn Michael Davids.
His criminal record and history were thus cemented and he was jailed.
According to some documents obtained by SaharaReporters, Abiodun’s jail number was 8600B9436.
In 2015, while contesting for the Ogun East Senatorial seat against the late Buruji Kasamu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he applied for the redaction of his criminal records in Miami-Dade, Florida.
This act of concealment meant he could lie on his Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) forms that he had no prior criminal records; a perjury offence that could have disqualified him from ever holding an appointive or elective office in Nigeria.
The redaction was granted in August 2015.
