After being detained for preaching while carrying a pistol, Uche Aigbe, the pastor of House On The Rock Church, was arraigned before a Chief Magistrate Court in the Federal Capital Territory, or FCT.
Uche Aigbe, Promise Ukachukwu, and Olakunle Ogunleye have entered a not guilty plea to charges of criminal conspiracy, unlawful possession of a firearm, causing a disturbance, and criminal intimidation.
The defendants, who are all members of the House on the Rock Church in Wuye, Abuja, were accused by the police of plotting to unlawfully and illegally possess an AK-47 weapon on February 12, 2023.
Prosecution counsel, Assistant Police Commissioner, James Idachaba, noted that the defendants got the firearm from Inspector Musa Audu, attached to Wuye Division, posted on guard duty at the said Church.
Idachaba alleged that the defendants used the firearm to illustrate while preaching a sermon about faith in the Church.
He also claimed that they made inciting and intimidating statements to the church congregation that could cause alarm and breach of peace, contravening Section III of the Firearms Act CAP F28, LFN 2004, and contravened Sections 97, 114, and 397 of the Penal Code.
Chief Magistrate Abubakar Ismail who presided over the case on Thursday, August 10, struck out the no-case submission made by the defendants on grounds of the trial lacking merit and substance.
Ismail held that the evidence presented in court showed that the defendants have been effectively linked with the charges preferred against him by the Police.