FIVE suspects could be facing death sentences over the disruption of a Mobile Court sitting in Zaria, Kaduna State, a Magistrate Court in Kaduna has said.
According to the prosecutor, the five suspects, Alhaji Bello, Ibrahim Adamu, Sadam A. Mohammed, Basiru Abdullahi and Habibu Bello were arraigned following a complaint by the Magistrate of a Mobile Court, Lamido Abubakar.
Abubakar filed the complaint to the police alleging that the suspects chased him away from the Magistrate Mobile Court stationed in the Maraban Gwanda and Sabon Gari area of Zaria.
The prosecutor quoted the magistrate, who is the victim of the alleged attack by the suspects as saying that his auxiliary staffs were attacked while he sustained injuries on his leg and finger.
He further alleged that the defendants damaged parts of the Hilux bus attached to the court, an act he described as an attempt to commit homicide and obstruction of public servant on duty.
During a hearing of the case by a Magistrate Court, sitting in Chediya, Mustapha Dahiru Isah, the magistrate said his court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case, but the offence was an attempt to commit homicide, which penalty was “life sentence or death penalty.
Isah ordered the suspects to be remanded in the Nigerian Correctional Service facility pending an advice from the Kaduna State Ministry of Justice on the next line of action.
He adjourned the case to September 19, for further hearing.
However, DailyTrust reported that families of some of the suspects alleged that the suspects were randomly picked and were not perpetrators of the alleged offence.
“Actually, those that chased away the Magistrate of the mobile court were motorists plying the Zaria-Kano express road, as their colleague died in the hands of the vigilantes attached to the court,” a relative of one of the suspect said.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94