EL-ZAKZAKY IBRAHIM AND HIS WIFE, ZEENAT HAS BEEN DISCHARGE – AS LAWYER PROISE TO SEEK DAMAGE AGAISNT EL-RUFAI
Finally, The Kaduna High Court, yesterday discharged and acquitted leader of the proscribed Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat.
Justice Gideon Kurada in an eight-hour ruling,
upheld the no-case submission filed by the defendants, saying the prosecution
had failed to establish a prima facie case against the duo.
For
the past four years, El-Zakzaky and wife had been on trial over eight-count
charge of alleged culpable homicide, disruption of public peace and unlawful
Assembly among others ,levelled against them by the Kaduna State government.
Counsel
to the defendants, Marshal Abubakar who represented the lead counsel in the
suit, Femi Falana, SAN, told journalists after the trial ended in Kaduna that
“the trial of Sheik El-Zakzaky and his wife Zeenat has come to end as the court
found them not guilty of the alleged crime, filed against them by the Kaduna State
Government.
“The court found that the charges filed in 2018
pursuant to the Penal law enacted by the State Government in 2017 were over an
alleged offence committed in 2015. The court presided by Justice Gideon
Kurada,held that the charge was not supposed to be filed in the first place, as
the government cannot arraign someone for a said crime that was not an offence
at the time.
“
The court ruled that the charge was incompetent as the court agreed that
El-Zakzaky and his wife had committed no offence. The court also holds that the
event of December 12 2015 and December 15, 2015 was not an offence and the
court was emphatic that none of the events of Dececember 12, 2015 can be
attributed to the defendants for an offence.
“The court, thereby, discharges and acquits the
defendants, as there should have been no charge in the first place. No party
asked for cost of fine”
Reacting,
President of IMN Media Forum, Ibrahim Musa, among others, said with the victory
in court, the false charges filed against their leader and his wife had finally
“been punctured for good after almost five years of excruciating illegal
detention. It is a victory for truth and justice against tyranny and impunity.”
Also reacting, one of the lawyers to Sheikh
El-Zakzaky, Sadau Garba, said his client would approach the Court to seek
damages against the Kaduna state government for the deprivations and travails
he faced during his prolonged incarceration.
“However, we will certainly seek damages against the Kaduna state government for all the deprivations and the travails our client suffered. They now need to go home, have some rest and attend to their urgent medical needs.
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