A Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday remanded actress Doris Ogala at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre pending the hearing and determination of her bail application over alleged cyberbullying, cyberstalking and attempted extortion of Pastor Chris Okafor.
Ogala was arraigned on three counts by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation before Justice Akintayo Aluko on allegations bordering on the publication of intimate photographs, dissemination of allegedly false electronic messages and threats against the cleric.
The prosecution counsel, Tolulope Mokolu, told the court that the defendant committed the offences between September 2024 and March 2026.
Mokolu alleged that Ogala knowingly and intentionally published nude and intimate photographs of Okafor on her social media accounts without his consent.
The prosecution also alleged that the publication was capable of causing annoyance, embarrassment, emotional distress and injury to the cleric’s reputation, adding that the images were subsequently circulated across social media blogs and platforms.
He accused Ogala of intentionally publishing and disseminating videos, recordings and electronic messages containing information she allegedly knew to be false, with the intention of bullying, threatening, intimidating and harassing Okafor. The prosecutor told the court that the defendant allegedly transmitted electronic communications threatening to continue publishing menacing and intimate material about the cleric unless he compensated her or bought her a house.
Mokolu said she allegedly made the threats with the intention of damaging Okafor’s reputation and exposing him to ridicule and public opprobrium.
According to the prosecutor, the offences contravened Sections 24(1)(a), 24(2)(a) and 24(2)(c) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Amendment Act, 2024.
She, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges when they were read to her.
Following her plea, prosecution counsel Mokolu asked the court to fix a date for trial and order her remand pending the determination of the case.
Mokolu also informed the court that he had only been served with the defendant’s bail application on Wednesday and needed time to study it and file a response.
Opposing the remand request, defence counsel, N. C. Atulomah, argued that the decision to grant bail rested within the court’s discretion.
He urged the court to release the actress, adding that she was a governorship candidate of a political party in Abia State, and undertook to produce her in court at the next hearing.
The prosecutor opposed the defence’s request, arguing that he was still within the time allowed to respond to the bail application.
In his ruling, Justice Aluko held that the defence had not placed sufficient material before the court to justify the request for the defendant’s release.
The judge, however, ordered an accelerated hearing of the bail application and adjourned the matter until October 30, 2026, for its hearing.
He further ordered that Ogala be remanded at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre pending the hearing and determination of the bail application.
The case was adjourned until October 30, 2026, for the hearing of Ogala’s bail application.
Punch
