Court has freed “Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate” of IPOB threat and terrorism charges in Lagos.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that the Lagos State High Court at Tafawa Balewa Square has acquitted and discharged Frederick Nwajagu, the “Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate,” of terrorism charges.
The court had on Wednesday ruled that the Lagos State Government failed to prove any of the ingredients of the charges against Nwajagu.
The judge, Justice Yetunde Adesanya, however, convicted and sentenced Nwajagu to 12 months of imprisonment for parading himself as a certified chief in Lagos State, which contravened the Oba and Chiefs Law of Lagos State.
The judge, however, ordered that the convict should be released since he had spent almost two years in incarceration.
The 67-year-old was arrested on April 1, 2023, after a viral video allegedly showed him threatening to invite members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to Lagos to protect the properties of Igbo residents in the state.
In the 49-second viral video, Nwajago was heard saying, “IPOB, we will invite them. They have no job. All of the IPOB will protect all of our shops. And we have to pay them. We have to mobilise for that. We have to do that. We must have our security so that they will stop attacking us at midnight, in the morning, and in the afternoon.”
A few days later, a Yaba magistrate court remanded Nwajagu in prison, and he was subsequently arraigned by the Lagos State Government on nine counts of terrorism and impersonation.
