B-Lord's path to freedom hit a fresh snag at the Federal High Court in Abuja after the police unexpectedly withdrew their counter-affidavit opposing his bail, yet the judge scheduled to hear the application became "unreachable," sources told SaharaReporters on Wednesday. The cryptocurrency entrepreneur, Linus Williams Ifejirika, has been in Kuje Correctional Centre since 1 April when Justice R.N. Ofili-Ajumogobia remanded him for 26 days on charges of criminal conspiracy, impersonation and unauthorised use of a public figure's identity. His lawyers from Dunu Chambers wrote the Chief Judge on 2 April requesting an expedited hearing before a vacation judge on 8 or 9 April, arguing that the police move should have cleared the way for a swift decision. Instead, Tuesday's sitting was aborted and the file remains in limbo, prolonging detention that began after social media influencer Martins Vincent Otse, known as VeryDarkMan, accused B-Lord of forging documents and plastering his face on billboards to promote the Blunt Gadget and Billpoint apps without consent.
When a judge suddenly becomes "unreachable" the moment the police drop their opposition, the pretence that courts operate independently of the police and the executive collapses. B-Lord's liberty now hinges on whether an invisible hand can keep a judge off the bench longer than the law allows.
The choreography is familiar: a high-profile arrest splashed across social media, a remand order that stretches beyond the statutory preview date, then a procedural "glitch" that keeps the accused locked in while the headlines cool. VeryDarkMan's petition supplied the optics, but it is the court's inability to sit that supplies the punishment. By withdrawing their counter-affidavit, the police have technically conceded they have no fresh reason to keep him, yet the absence of a judge converts that concession into a cruel joke on due process.
For the average Nigerian caught in the system without B-Lord's name recognition or legal firepower, the takeaway is blunt: remand can last indefinitely if the bench chooses silence over scheduling. Every extra night in Kuje is another reminder that bail is not a right but a favour doled out when the machinery remembers to function.
This stall fits a wider pattern of using pre-trial detention as de-facto punishment for cyber-crime suspects once the prosecution's narrative unravels. Until the judiciary shows it can convene faster than it can disappear, courtrooms will remain the most expensive waiting rooms in Abuja.
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