March 29, 2024

 

Justice Haleemah Salman, the presiding judge in the April 5, 2018 bloody Offa bank robbery case, on Monday blamed the prosecution for the delay in the trial of the case.

At the resumed hearing of the suit, Justice Salman washed off the hands of the court in the expeditious dispensation of the matter.

She said: “The court is not happy about the news in the media that it is delaying adjudication on this matter. If anybody is to be blamed for the delay in this trial, it’s the prosecution. The case was adjourned on September 7, 2020 to December 21/22 to enable the prosecution bring its key witness (Inspector Joseph Danjuma) to court. But on December 21, the prosecution was still unable to produce the witness, citing administrative bottlenecks.”

Prosecution counsel Bola Gold had filed an application at the court seeking the replacement of his key witness, Inspector Danjuma, with Inspector John Newoke.

He told the court that Danjuma was outside the country on an official assignment.

He thereafter sought an adjournment of the case to enable the prosecution assemble the gadgets needed to interpret videos and CCTV footages.

“The witness is to give evidence on videos and CCTV footage and we need to arrange gadgets in the court for this purpose. We will need an adjournment in view of the technicalities involved in this,” Gold said.

The defence counsel, Mathias Emeribe, agreed for an adjournment.

He, however, reminded the court that the health challenge of the first defendant, Ayoade Akinnibosun, had not be attended to as ordered by the court on the last adjourned date.

Justice Salman, who said the subsisting order of the court on the need for the doctor at the Correctional Service Centre, Ilorin to attend to the health challenge of the first defendant is still in force, gave a definite order asking Dr. Paul Olaleye to give Akinnibosun proper treatment.

Before adjourning the case, Justice Salman said: “It is your case. I don’t know whether you are working for the defence. Just state your case and I will record.”

She adjourned the suit till February 17.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *