On Monday, a Kaduna Chief Magistrates’ Court struck out a suit instituted by the police against a journalist in Kaduna accused of incitement.
The police had dragged Mr Midat Joseph of
Leadership newspaper and one Yayock
Eusebiuf to the court on a three-count
charge of criminal conspiracy, inciting
disturbance and injurious falsehood.
Joseph was arrested on April 19, 2017 and
detained by the police over a comment on
Whatsapp social platform group chat where
he had contributed to a conversation. The
two were subsequently arraigned before
the chief magistrate on April 21.
They had pleaded not guilty to the charges,
but denied the three-count charge and the
Chief Magistrate, Mr Emmanuel Bello
subsequently granted them bail and
adjourned the case to July 31.
When the case came up, however, the
prosecution counsel did not appear for the
second time since the case began. Counsel
to Joseph, James Kanyip, therefore, urged
the court to dismiss the case in view of the
lack of interest shown by the prosecution,
citing section 165 of criminal procedure law
of Kaduna State.
In his ruling, the chief magistrate struck out
the suit for lack of diligent prosecution.
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