Kano court discharge, acquit Deji Adeyanju over alleged murder charge

A Kano State High Court on Friday discharged and acquitted a human rights activist and convener, Concerned Nigerians, Prince Deji Adeyanju, over an alleged murder charge.

The presiding judge, Justice Rabiu Sadiq, ruled that the case contained exactly the same grounds for which Adeyanju was discharged and acquitted 10 years ago.

According to newsmen confirmation from the court registrar, Balarabe Adamu, the judge said Adeyanju’s re-arraignment by the police “amounts to double trial.”
Although no damages were awarded to the human rights activist by the judge because his lawyers did not seek damages in the court filings.

It would be recalled that in 2005, Adeyanju was charged with murder at the Kano State High Court over the alleged involvement of murder in 2005 in Kano, Kano State, but was discharged and acquitted in 2009 upon dismissal of the case.
But the Police still filed murder charges against him for using the same material that had been dismissed by the court in 2009.
He was remanded at Kano Central Prison where he spent 78 days from the day he was arrested on December 13, 2018 over an alleged murder in 2005 in Kano, but on March 1, 2019, he was released on bail.

Meanwhile, in his reaction to Vanguard, he said, “If you are a human rights defender in this part of the world expect the unexpected. You can be framed, defamed, in prison and lied against by the Government just for standing for what is right and even after the courts set you free, government and resurrect the case years later as they did to me in this particular case to lock you up again for political reasons.

“My appeal to the judicial officers is to be courageous because they are the last hope of the common man. There’s nothing this government can do to us that will deter us from defending the rights of fellow citizens. The struggle continues. Solidarity forever.”

(Credit: Vanguard)