IBADAN— Chairman of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Ibadan branch, Mr. Adegbola Adeniyi yesterday rose in stout defence of the judgment delivered by Justice Akin Sanda on the freedom granted Senator Iyiola Omisore declaring that nobody could fault the ruling of the court.
Besides, the NBA boss said that if the Oyo State Ministry of Justice believed that continuing with the trial of the 11 other accused persons charged with the same offences as Omisore would be a futile exercise, the Attorney General was constitutionally empowered to discontinue with the case.
Mr. Adeniyi in an interview in Ibadan said, “the court is bound to give a verdict based on the evidence placed before it. The court will not be going about searching for evidence in order to convict an accused person”.
“One can not from the perspective of the court fault the decision in discharging and acquitting Omisore, no matter how sentimental and emotional one may be about the matter. I believe that the court, like I said earlier, can not go outside the facts and evidence placed before it in reaching its decision.
"However, one can now call to question the effectiveness of the Nigeria police in investigating high profile murder cases like this Bola Ige case”. Ordinarily, one would have expected the head of the Nigeria police which is the Inspector-General of Police to spearhead the investigation of the killing of a sitting Attorney-General of the Federation. But what did we find, officers who were not as competent were left to investigate this kind of case.
“Worse still is the fact that even in the middle of the investigation, officers were transferred thereby causing a less than down-thorough investigation of the whole case”.
The NBA Chairman said that from the whole scenario, “the judiciary in this matter has done its own bit. It could not have been better than what it has done in the present circumstances”.
On whether the state should continue with the trial of the 11 others, especially in the face of several loopholes in the prosecution case, Mr. Adeniyi said, ”It will not be wise to pre-empt and pre-judge the decision of Justice Atilade Ojo on the matter. The decision to continue with the case can only be taken by the State Attorney General”.
”It is their case, the Ministry of Justice has the record of the court proceedings and the judgment and if they believe continuing will amount to futile and wasteful exercise, I think they are competent to take a decision in that direction.
"The Ministry of Justice, I believe, should look at the judgment and the court proceedings very well and carefully too and if it will amount to waste of time to continue, they should just take the bold step and enter nolle prosecui. The AG is constitutionally empowered to do that.’’
