From the left,the suspects paraded and the only lady among them released. On the right the murdered boys.
At the resumed hearing yesterday, the chief magistrate discharged seven
of the 18 accused persons after reading the advice of the DPP,for want of evidence of complicity in the
crime.
Those discharged include the only female accused person, Cynthia
Chinwo, George Nwadei, Ekpe Daniel, Gabriel Ochi, Endurance Edet, Lucky
Agwurum, and Finebone Jeffrey, aka Soso.
The chief magistrate said from the advice dated January 25, the seven
persons were arrested and charged to court based on mere suspicion,
adding that no prima facie case of murder had been established against
them.
“It is a trite law that suspicion, no matter how strong, cannot take
place of legal proof without concrete evidence to substantiate it, and
as such, they were victims of circumstance and, therefore, charging and
prosecuting them will be an exercise in futility,” Woke ruled.
But many have raised the question whether or not those so freed by the
chief magistrate were actually innocent or they were beneficiaries of
police’ poor prosecutorial competence.
The magistrate further said there were seven other suspects who had
been arrested, granted police bail, but were yet to be charged to court
on the matter. He said no case had also been established against them
and ordered that they be discharged too.
I think this matter should be thoroughly investigated so innocent people are not made to pay the price for a crime commited by others. The general news Nigerians got as at the time arrests were made was that the perpetrators had fled the village of Aluu so who are the people being arraigned here? Where is the boy who accused these boys originally the first time they got to Aluu before the beatings and subsequent deaths took place?
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