By Desire Emmanuel
A man who spent seven years in prison custody after he was arrested for an offence he knew nothing about has now regained his freedom.
The man, whose name was given simply as Abdul, said to be from Kaduna State, lives in Lagos and worked as a local Disc Jockey (DJ).
He landed in trouble on October 16, 2019 when he went to perform at a neighbourhood gathering and at a point, he reportedly asked a young boy to help him buy something.
A few minutes later, some estate officials came to the gathering with the boy and accused Abdul of lying about the errand he sent the boy boy.
Before he could understand what was happening, policemen that were invited by the estate officials arrived and arrested him.
He was detained at the police station for two weeks and on October 30, 2019, he was brought before a Magistrates’ Court charged with sexual assault involving a minor.
Because he didn’t understand the charge properly, he was said to have pleaded guilty. However, because the Magistrates’ Court had no jurisdiction over the alleged offence, the case was referred to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for legal advice while he was remanded in prison custody.
His plight got to the attention of an advocacy group that usually visits prisons and courts in Lagos, the Headfort Foundation for Justice, and on hearing from him, one of the lawyers of the foundation decided to take up the case and began representing him in court.
“At first, the DPP informed us that they could not even find Abdul’s case file. After persistent follow-ups, the file was eventually located, and we were informed that the matter was already before the High Court,” the foundation stated in a post on its X handle on Friday, July 10.
The foundation said when its lawyer traced the matter to the High Court, it made a shocking discovery as the case before the court had already been struck out since 2021 and upon further look at the file, it was against another defendant with the same name as Abdul but different offence.
“We wrote to the Chief Judge. We challenged the inconsistencies. We continued appearing in court, insisting that no human being should lose years of their life without a lawful trial,” the foundation added.
Eventually, the court held that there had been no diligent prosecution, that there was no basis to continue holding Abdul in custody, and that his continued detention violated his constitutional right to personal liberty.
The court eventually struck out the case for want of diligent prosecution, discharged and acquitted Abdul after spending seven years in prison custody for an offence he knew nothing about.
