Former Rivers Federal lawmaker, Farah Dagogo who was recently discharged and acquitted for terrorism charges says he was arrested and incarcerated on barefaced lies.
Dagogo who was arrested for allegedly disrupting the PDP National and State Assembly primaries in a recent interview said there was no disruption of any kind before, during and after the said primaries.
According to him he was not contesting for any legislative positions and wondered how he got entangled and roped into a non-existent disruption.
He noted that he was a Governorship aspirant and was contesting for the governorship position but was arrested at the venue of the governorship primaries.
He said,“Now to what transpired. I really would have preferred not to talk about it because all that happened is now in the past. However, for the sake of posterity, it wouldn’t be fair to allow a one-side of the story to run. Yes, a whole lot of persons have spoken in my defence when I was in incarceration, so from the horse’s mouth, let me amplify it. I was arrested and incarcerated on barefaced lies. The fact remains, there was no disruption of any kind before, during and after the said PDP National and State Assemblies screening exercise. That exercise commenced from the 27th of April till the wee hours of April 28th. The whole exercise was peaceful.
“Journalists were there. Your colleagues covered the screening exercise. Was there actually any disruption? Why was there this unholy silence from the mainstream media? No single picture or video of the supposed violence that was somehow linked to me in this jet age of mass media! How did I even became the point of discussion?
“I was never there on the aforementioned day. I wasn’t contesting for any legislative positions, so how did I get entangled and roped into a non-existent disruption? I was a Governorship aspirant! I was contesting for the governorship position and was arrested at the venue of the governorship primaries. It was all pre-planned to take me out of circulation because I had done my homework and was sure of victory. They were all trumped-up charges. That was why those people, who connived and went as far, in their vain bid to reinforce their lies on my orchestrated incarceration debased even the sanctum of the Lord, not forgetting their well documented, blasphemous and heretical talk. Yet, when the onus was upon them, they were unable to prove their case in court.
“In exonerating me of all charges, the Judge, Justice Chiwendu Nwogu, in his ruling said “Justice is not only for the state, it is also for the Defendant, whose freedom has been limited since the commencement of this suit on 9/5/2022. What I see in the prosecution is complete loss of tempo to prosecute this case any longer. The dexterity on the part of the prosecution to prosecute this case is no longer there but gone hence the resort to the applications for these numerous adjournments.”
“That statement in the ruling further reinforces the clear belief held by me and other rational thinkers that, it was all politically induced. Remember, at a point during this trial, I was brought to court in an unconscious state, how come the ‘complete loss of tempo’ by the prosecutor when it now mattered most?
“This is because when you attempt to build something on a faulty foundation, it is just akin to building something on nothing. When that foundation is faulty, no structure can endure. So rightly, I was discharged and acquitted for lack of diligent prosecution.
