By Desire Emmanuel
A man who spent a total of 20 months in prison custody after he was accused of being an armed robber has been discharged and acquitted after the judge found out that there was no court record of his case.
The man, whose name was given simply as Anuoluwapo, who is a barber, was said to have been arrested in February 2024 and arraigned at a court by the police in March 2024 on a one-count charge of armed robbery.
He was remanded in prison custody after the arraignment and despite the seriousness of the accusation, the case dragged on for over a year without proper attention.
He was in prison custody from March 2024 till October this year when his plight got to the attention of an advocacy group, the Headfort Foundation for Justice, when the group visited the prison where he was.
On hearing his situation, one of the lawyers of the foundation decided to take up his case and immediately wrote letters to and visited the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, where it was discovered there was no record of Anuoluwapo’s case, which indicated that the prosecution did not properly handle the case.
On November 13, 2025, the lawyer appeared in court for the first time in the case and the prosecutor was absent.
The court was told that Anuoluwapo had spent almost two years in detention for a case that the file did not even exist and she prayed the court to strike out the case or grant Anuoluwapo bail.
The judge observed that the prosecution had not done its job and granted the application to strike out the case. The case was subsequently struck out for lack of diligent prosecution. Anuoluwapo was discharged and acquitted after spending 20 months in prison custody.
