The Kaduna State High Court has discharged ten members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (Shiites) standing trial for protesting in Kaduna following the stand-off with the Nigerian Army in December 2015.
Delivering judgment in the “no case” submission put in by the defence lawyers, Justice Esther Lolo absolved them of the five-count charges brought against them by the Kaduna State government.
At the last sitting of the court in July after all the prosecution witnesses had testified and the prosecution had closed its case, Maxwell Kyon addressed the court on a no case submission.
He urged the court to discharge the accused persons and acquit them of the offences for which they were standing trial.
Isiaka Abdullahi, the Deputy Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) argued that the prosecution through the witnesses it called had established a prima facie case against the defendants.
Justice Lolo upheld the no case submission argued by Kyon and discharged and acquitted the defendants in respect of all the offences.
She held that the entire evidence of the prosecution was not direct as it failed to point to any of the defendants as being perpetrators of any of the offences for which they stood trial.
