Court Grants Detained Catholic Priest Bail

A High Court sitting in Ohaukwu, Ebonyi State, on Friday, admitted on bail, the detained Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. Timothy Ngwuta.

Ngwuta was arrested by police on December 11, 2021, arraigned and imprisoned for alleged promotion of the protracted Effium-Ezza Effium communal clash.

The priest, who was detained for twelve days and released on bail as a result of ill health arising from his alleged torture by security agents, was thereafter rearrested on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, and arraigned on March 11, 202, for alleged kidnapping and murder and remanded at the Abakaliki Correctional Centre, up till the time of filing this report.

Ngwuta’s detention generated reactions from different quarters, including the Catholic church. The church condemned his detention, saying, he was a prisoner of conscience, even as it alleged that the State Government signed an Executive Order directing the courts in the state not to hear any matter linked to the Effium crisis.

However, the State Government through the Attorney-General, Cletus Ofoke, debunked that there was such an Executive Order.

On Friday, Rev. Fr. Ngwuta, was eventually admitted on bail by the Court following an application for his bail filed by his lawyers.

The matter was, thereafter, adjourned sine die since the Office of the Attorney-General of the State and the Department of Public Prosecution neither filed any information nor opposed the bail application.