The police on behalf of the Federal Government has dragged a deputy director with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Yisa Usman, before the Federal High Court, Abuja, over alleged threat to life.
NIGERIACRIME gathered that the director allegedly threatened Raheemat Oloyede, the wife of the JAMB registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, with the intent to blackmail her husband.
The accused was arraigned on Tuesday on a five-count before Justice Nkeonye Maha.
The offence was committed between February 14, 2022, and February 15, 2022, alongside one Abdulfatai Usman, now at large.
The two suspects allegedly communicated with Oloyede through a network computer system with the phone number: +447529723948, and the communication was said to be “grossly offensive, indecent, criminal intimidation with the purpose of causing inconvenience or needless anxiety” to her.
The police also accused Usman of publishing letters between January 31, 2022, and February 4, 2022, through a computer system network on WhatsApp falsely accusing the JAMB registrar and members of the management board of JAMB committed fraud and violated the Federal Government’s regulations.
The offence is contrary to Section 24(1)(a) & (b) of the Cybercrime Act 2015.”
He, however, pleaded not guilty to all the counts after the charge was read to him, and the police prosecutor, Eristo Asaph, subsequently made an application for a trial date.
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Moses Balogun, who appeared for Usman, informed the court that a bail application, dated and filed on June 7, had already been served on the prosecution on the same day.
He told the court that the defendant, who had been admitted to administrative bail during the investigation of the matter, had complied with the terms of the bail.
He then requested the court grant him bail on liberal terms or self-recognition pending the hearing and determination of the case.
The prosecution did not oppose the application.
Justice Maha, in a ruling, admitted Usman to bail in the sum of N2 million with a surety who must be a civil servant on Level 14 and the owner of a landed property within the jurisdiction of the court.
She ruled that the defendant and the surety must submit their travel documents and a passport photograph each to the court registrar.
Reacting to his arraignment, Usman said that his ordeal began after he challenged his deployment from Kaduna to Port Harcourt and the abuse of power wielded by Oloyede.
He said, “I am a 54-year-old physically challenged Deputy Director that suffered the injustices of Prof. Ishaq Oloyede.
“My ordeal started with my deployment to Port-Harcourt from Kaduna despite my condition and in violation of the Disability Act.
“And that was the third posting in five years. My family is in Abuja. I resisted the violation for 20 months before it was reversed following the intervention of the Federal Ministry of Education.
“I petitioned the Ministry and several other agencies about the abuse of authority in JAMB and some financial infractions that I noticed.
“This caused a ministerial fact-finding committee to be set up to investigate my allegations, which were reportedly established.
“Following my redeployment back to Kaduna in February, Prof. Oloyede issued me two queries within 14 days and followed it with an invitation to appear before a panel. The intention was to dismiss me from service, but I did not turn up at the panel. I instead sent a seven-page letter.
“Prior to these developments, I had raised concerns about Prof. Oloyede’s abuse of power and violations of the laws with negative consequences on staff.
More so, he said, “Prof Oloyede petitioned the IGP in February 2022 that I am a criminal. The investigation was concluded in March, but unexpectedly, I am now charged with five criminal charges and have to appear before the Federal High Court.”