Justice delayed, is justice denied!! It is against Nigeria's security and national interest whenever corrupt judges discretionally abuse their judicial powers by granting bails to criminals whose actions have caused thousands of deaths and condemned millions into miserable lives in refugee camps around Nigeria. It is not rule of law, but ruse of law, whenever judges remand some suspects indefinitely in prison while others are granted bails and their cases adjourned sine die. To my mind, it is a reckless abuse of judicial power for any judge to keep an accused person in prison for 22 years awaiting judgment. Let me illustrate with a real case sample.
On 19 September 1996, Ikechukwu Okoronkwo, a 11-year-old boy groundnut seller was lured into a hotel called Otokoto in Owerri and beheaded. Okoronkwo was reportedly given a bottle of coca-cola that had been spiked with drug before he was killed. The hotel was owned by one Vincent Duru, who became known as Chief Otokoto during the trial. Besides beheading Okoronkwo, the suspects who were seven in number reportedly removed different organs from his body, including his genitals, before burying the corpse in a shallow grave. Unfortunately for the murderers, the crime was discovered when one of the culprits, a 32-year-old Innocent Ekeanyanwu, left the hotel to deliver the head of Okoronkwo in a polythene bag to a client. An Okada rider, who gave Ekeanyanwu a ride, observed the fresh human head and alerted the Police, leading to the arrest of Ekeanyanwu. One of the seven accused of murdering Ikechukwu Okoronkwo was a gardener, at Okotoko hotel, called Alban Ajaegbu who was proven not to be at the hotel when the murder took place. Nevertheless, Alban Ajaegbu maintained his innocence and appealed the death sentence passed on him to the Supreme Court of Nigeria. On Friday, 18 May 2018, the Supreme Court of Nigeria in a judgment delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun discharged and acquitted Alban Ajaegbu of participating in the murder of 11-year-old boy groundnut seller,Ikechukwu Okoronkwo. Alban Ajaegbu had been in prison for almost 22 years before his case was finally decided by the Supreme Court. Alban Ajaegbu shared the same fate with about 32 thousand Nigerians who are reportedly incarcerated in various prisons in Nigeria awaiting trials and have been forgotten there by the court registrars and judges who ordered their remands. Now I ask you, what kind of rule of law permits judges to grant bails to treasury looters of millions of dollars and then adjourn their trials indefinitely? What kind of rule law permits judges to preside over corruption cases in Nigeria since 2007, and still in 2018 without conclusions after granting bails to the accused? The natural dictators in Nigeria are the treasury looters and the corrupt judiciary. Correct me if treasury looters and corrupt judicial officers are democrats.
S. Kadiri.
Skickat: den 27 augusti 2018 10:36
Till: USA African Dialogue Series
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