By Palang Paul
The bail hearing of popular blogger Justice Chidebere, widely known as Justice Crack, suffered a setback on Thursday at the Federal High Court in Abuja after his former counsel withdrew the pending bail application before the court.
The case, initially adjourned to May 25 for hearing, was brought forward to May 14 following an abridgment of time by the court.
At the resumed proceedings, a lawyer representing the office of the Attorney General of the Federation announced that the Federal Government had taken over prosecution of the matter.
Tension briefly emerged in court when two lawyers — Olufemi Balogun and Marshal Abubakar — simultaneously attempted to announce appearances for the defendant.
Abubakar maintained that he remained counsel on record from the previous sitting, while Balogun informed the court that he had been newly engaged by the defendant to lead his defence.
Presiding judge, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, subsequently asked the defendant to identify his legal representative. Justice Crack pointed to Balogun as his counsel.
Following the clarification, Abubakar formally withdrew from the case alongside all applications he had previously filed, including the pending bail application.
The development effectively stalled the bail proceedings, as the withdrawn application was the only one before the court seeking the defendant’s release.
Balogun later informed the court that he would file a fresh bail application on behalf of his client.
Justice Abdulmalik thereafter adjourned the matter until May 18 for hearing and directed the prosecution to open its case on the next adjourned date or risk having the matter struck out for lack of diligent prosecution.
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