After eighteen futile attempts, a detainee finally got the right to be heard before a High Court sitting in Isuikwuato, last December courtesy of the ABSU Law Clinic.
Followers of this blog would have been conversant with the story of a detainee (names withheld), aged 16 at the time of his arrest, who was charged with armed robbery and had been in detention in Umuahia Prisons for five years before the Clinic came into contact with his case. Due to the apparent lack of diligence on the part of his previous lawyer, the Clinic fully took over the case after the amicable termination of the brief of the previous lawyer and the case file handed over to the clinic. The clinic soon swung into action by contacting a lawyer, Barr. Emeka Okoroafor to apply for the case to be struck out.
Unfortunately for the detainee, in spite of the efforts of the Clinic, several factors conspired to deny him the right to be heard in Court. Factors like the lateness of the Prison authorities in bringing him to court, the inability of the Court to sit on some days set for hearing due to public holidays, judicial vacation etc, all ensured that on eighteen different occasions, from the day of his arraignment to the last adjourned date, he had not been able to appear in court.
The dedicated efforts of the Clinic has finally yielded results with the Prosecution finally opening its case hereby ensuring that the detainee exercised his fundamental right to fair hearing, legal representation and access to justice, as recognized and protected by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
At the last adjourned date, on the 2nd of December 2011, one of the key witnesses for the prosecution and a victim of the alleged offence, openly declared that “he has decided to hand over the matter to God and is no longer interested in litigation” while, the Prosecution Lawyer asked the Judge to give him some time to get further directives from the Office of the Attorney General as to the way forward with the case, raising hopes of a possible withdrawal of the matter at the next adjourned date. The Defence Counsel (contracted by the Clinic) equally addressed the court on the need to facilitate the speedy conclusion of the matter following the deprivation of the fundamental rights of the Detainee for more than 5years now. The matter has been adjourned to the 9th day of January, 2012.
ABSU Law Clinic, besides providing the services of a lawyer for the detainee, has also been providing the transportation cost of conveying the detainee from the prison to the court on the days of hearing. Our team is also diligently following up every detail and outcome of each court sitting and would update this report to reflect the present state of the trial pending it's determination by the court.
