A Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday imposed a fine of N200,000 on the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) for truncating the trial of four co-defendants of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, on charges bordering on treasonable felony.
The trial Judge, Justice Binta Nyako, ordered that each of the defendants be paid N50,000 by the AGF for the inconveniences they suffered as a result of absence of the lead counsel to the Federal Government, Shuaibu Labaran.
The judge, who was angry with the way the trial was truncated by the office of the AGF, ordered that the N200,000 be paid to the defendants before the adjourned date of March 17.
The four defendants, Bright Chimezie, Chidiebere Onwudike, Benjamin Maduagwu and David Nwaurusi had, through their lawyers, complained of the hardships they suffered to raise funds for their transportation to Abuja.
When the matter was called on Wednesday, no legal representation came for the Federal Government and as the judge was about to take adjournment, one Mrs Adewumi Aluko from the Federal Ministry of Justice came in and apologised that the Federal Government’s lead counsel was out of the country.
She announced that two witnesses were in court but will not want to proceed in the absence of the lead counsel and sought for an adjournment.
Her apology did not go down well with the judge who counseled the Federal Government to be more serious in the trial of the defendants and extended similar counselling to the defence lawyers to stop using frivolous applications to delay the trial which was started since 2015
Justice Nyako thereafter adjourned till March 17 for resumption of the trial.
