A Federal High Court in Yenagoa, on Tuesday declined to admit a computer print out of WhatsApp communication between a retired Permanent Secretary in Bayelsa State and his alleged blackmailer.
The Department of State Services (DSS), had on October 18, in relation to the case, arraigned a teenage girl before the court on a one-count charge of cyber-stalking.
The prosecuting counsel, Mr Victor Uchendu, had told the court that the defendant engaged in cyber-stalking by circulating Dr Walton Liverpool’s nude picture on a WhatsApp group.
Uchendu had on October 21, sought to tender the print-out of chat messages from the mobile phone of the complainant as evidence before the court, but the move was opposed by the Defence Counsel, Arthur Andrew.
Ruling on the admissibility of the print-out of an electronic evidence, Justice I.H. Ndahen, the trial judge, while admitting that the evidence, though relevant to the case, could not be admitted because of the disparity in models of the mobile phones used.
Ndahen noted that while the retired Permanent Secretary, Dr Walton Liverpool, 60, in his oral evidence, said that his mobile phone was a Samsung Galaxy A5, the certificate of compliance accompanying the print-out read Samsung Galaxy A7.
He, therefore, ruled that the evidence did not meet the criteria for admissibility for computer generated electronic evidence, as stipulated in Section 84 of the Evidence Act.
The court then proceeded into the trial, where the prosecution counsel led Liverpool, who had written a petition to the DSS, to conclude his evidence before the court.
The complainant tendered the nude video of himself sent to him by yet to be identified blackmailers in a Compact Disc before the court.
The video was played in the open court after which the ex-permanent Secretary was cross examined by the Defence Counsel.
The judge then adjourned the case till December 16, for continuation of trial.
