A Federal Capital Territory Justice of the Peace Courtroom sitting at Zuba has frowned on the incessant adjournments and delays within the trial of an anti-Tinubu air passenger, Barrister Obiajulu Hansel Uja, for prison offense.
Uja, an ‘Obidient supporter’ was arrested in April final yr when he brought about uproar throughout an Abuja-Lagos Ibom Air flight along with his lone protest and demand that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then a President-elect, should not be inaugurated as Nigeria’s President on Might 29.
The defendant, who’s a lawyer by coaching, had since been placed on trial earlier than Justice of the Peace Abdulazeez Ismail Muhammad of the Zuba Justice of the Peace’s Courtroom.
He was particularly charged with public nuisance, resistance to lawful arrest, threatening violence and conduct more likely to trigger a breach of peace opposite to sections 396, 267, 188,172 and 144 of the Penal Code Regulation.
He pleaded not responsible to all the fees however was denied bail by the trial court docket for varied causes.
Nevertheless, on the continuing slated for particular cross examination of a prosecution’s witness, Justice of the Peace Muhammad was shocked when he found that neither the Federal Authorities’s lawyer, Umo Inna, nor defence lawyer, P. U Ogbadu, was current in court docket.
To worsen the scenario, no clarification was supplied for his or her absence in court docket.
Muhammad who was stunned by the event mentioned in a short ruling that potential to stay related as an establishment requires the necessity to recognise challenges and start to take tough selections.
“Frivolous adjournment in prison issues have to be prohibited. Within the occasion of this case, I’ll lean on the facet of considerable justice to grant an adjournment on the occasion of the prosecution.
“In opposition to this background, this matter is adjourned to the 4th day of March, 2024 for particular cross examination”.
Uja’s trial for prison offense has suffered a sequence of adjournments.
At one level, the Kuje jail authority, after a medical checkup of the defendant primarily based on the court docket order, discovered that he was mentally unstable.
A Marketing consultant Psychiatrist on the Nationwide Hospital Abuja, Dr. Olusegun Shoyombo, had additionally in his medical report confirmed the psychological madness of the defendant.
Nevertheless, a choose of the Federal Capital Territory Excessive Courtroom, Justice Edward Okpe, put the psychological difficulty of the defendant to relaxation when he admitted him to bail and held that Uja was match for trial.
Consequent upon the Excessive Courtroom choice, the matter began with the prosecution calling its witness earlier than Justice of the Peace Mohammed Abdulazeez.
The prosecution has since completed main their witness and is now time for defendants to cross study the prosecution witness.
In the meantime, the cross examination has been shifted to March 4 by Justice of the Peace Muhammad with a warning to not tolerate any additional pointless delay within the trial.
