From: TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
A Chief Magistrate’s Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has discharged and acquitted 35 members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who were arrested during a solidarity rally for US President Donald Trump, on Friday, January 20, 2017, in Port Harcourt.
The trial Chief Magistrate, Sokari Andrew-Jaja, freed the IPOB members because of lack of diligent prosecution by the Police and Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) in the State.
The Chief Magistrate criticized the Police and the DPP for lack of diligent prosecution, which led to the remand of the suspects for more than a month.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after the accused persons regained freedom, Counsel for the IPOB loyalists, David Onyema, accused the Police of deliberately keeping the arrested suspects for no genuine reason.
Onyema said, “the court has discharged them based on section 303 (6) of the law. On the ground that the DPP did not bring any advice because there is no reasonable cause. The law says where there is no reasonable cause shown that there is any offence committed, the defendant should be discharged unconditionally.”
It would be recalled that Chief Magistrate Jaja, had, in the last sitting, issued a hearing notice to the Commissioner of Police or the State Attorney General to appear in court (yesterday), to explain why the detained pro-Biafra protesters should not be released unconditionally.
He gave the order after hearing arguments from the IPOB lawyers and the prosecution, on why the DPP’s advice on the matter was not ready within the 10 days given by the Court.
The freed Biafra agitators, who were arraigned at two different Magistrate Courts in Port Harcourt, January 23 evening, were arrested at various parts of the State capital during the protest. They were among the 65 persons Rivers State Police Command disclosed they arrested during the peaceful demonstration, that later went bloody. During the solidarity rally for Trump, scores of the youths were reportedly shot dead and many injured by security operatives trying to disperse them by force.
The discharged and acquitted persons were arraigned on a two-court charge of conspiracy to commit treasonable felony and display of unruly behaviour.
In Count one, they were accused of committing “treasonable felony and committed an offence punishable under section 516A (1) of the Criminal Code Cap 37 Volume II Laws of Rivers State of Nigeria, 1999.
In Count two, they were accused of conducting themselves “in a manner likely to force or compel the President to change his measures by displaying flags and other items of the Biafra Republic, with such intention by an act to take over the government of Nigeria by force and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 41 (c) of the Criminal Code Cap 37 Volume II Laws of Rivers State of Nigeria, 1999”.
The Chief Magistrate had denied them bail due on the ground that if the suspects were granted bail, they could constitute nuisance to the society.
He, then, ordered that the case file should be transferred to the State Attorney General for onward transmission to the Office of Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), for legal advice within 10 days.
The Chief Magistrate ordered that the accused persons should remain in detention pending the advice of the DPP, and adjourned the case till February 17, for hearing.
On February 17, the adjourned date, Counsel for the accused persons, Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, suspected “foul play” in the trial of his clients, after the court failed to sit on the adjourned date, January 30, after their arraignment, without prior information from the court.
Ejiofor also expressed worry that some of the accused persons, who sustained injuries during the arrest, had not received medical attention from concerned authorities since their incarceration.
Meanwhile, there was jubilation around the Rivers State Judiciary Complex in the State capital, yesterday, by supporters and relatives of the freed IPOB loyalists.