6th February, 2017
An FCT High Court, Gudu, Abuja, on Monday discharged a 35-year-old robbery suspect, Kelechi Isaac, for lack of diligent prosecution.
Isaac was charged for alleged conspiracy and armed robbery.
Earlier, Mrs Ijeoma Ukagha, the prosecutor, had told the court that the complainants in the matter had abandoned the case.
“Since inception of this matter, the prosecution has been found wanting.
“ In spite every attempt to convince the complainants to come for this matter, every attempt has proved abortive,” she said.
She also said that the case, which was first filed two years ago, had suffered several adjournments with no single witness willing to testify in court.
The trial judge, Abubakar Talba, said he was discharging Isaac based on the summation of the prosecutor that the complainants had abandoned the case.
Talba said that the beauty of prosecution was to prosecute and not to persecute and that where the prosecution was found wanting, the law had to take its course.
He also said that justice delayed was justice delayed, adding that he had no other option than to discharge the defendant.
The defendant, who was first arraigned in court on July 29, 2015, had pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge of conspiracy and armed robbery.