A Gudu Upper Area Court, Abuja in Nigeria’s capital, on Thursday admitted, Emmanuel Udechukwu and Godstime Nwakpa, to bail in the sum of N400,000 each for alleged abduction.
The presiding judge, Alhaji Umar Kagarko, ordered the defendants to produce one surety each in like sum.
Kagarko said that the surety must reside within the court’s jurisdiction, and adjourned the case till May 26 for hearing.
Udechukwu,36, and Nwakpa,32, of Durumi, Garki, Abuja, were arraigned on a six-count charge of criminal conspiracy, criminal force, assault, criminal intimidation, abduction and theft.
Prosecutor Urom Otu told the court that Prince Nwafor of Apo resettlement, Abuja, reported the matter at the Apo Police Station on March 25.
Otu said the defendants and the complainant went to ORS Hotel, Apo, Abuja, to settle a business transaction in which the defendants had always threatened to deal with the complainant.
He said while the settlement was on, the defendant went out in pretext to answer a phone call and called some men dressed in military uniform.
The prosecutor said that the men jointly dragged the complainant into his own car and beat him up.
Otu said the defendants drove the complainant to an unknown destination, searched and stole N330,000 given to him by his boss to deposit in the bank.
The prosecutor said the defendants abandoned the complainant’s car on the road and drove him in another vehicle.
He said the defendants compelled the complainant to write undertaking to pay N200,000 to the defendants with the help of the men dressed in military uniform.
Otu said that with all the intimidation, the complainant promised to give the defendants N50,000.
He said that they agreed to follow him to collect the money and in the process the complainant diverted to the police station where the defendants were arrested.
The prosecutor also said the men dressed in military uniform escaped, adding that the alleged offences contravened Sections, 97, 265, 397, 273 and 287 of the Penal Code.
The defendants pleaded not guilty.
Their counsel, Darlington Dike, applied for their bail and assured the court that reliable sureties would be provided to take them on bail