Absence of prosecution witnesses, on Tuesday, stalled continuation of hearing in the trial of April 5, 2018 bloody bank robbery in Offa, Kwara State.
Prosecution counsel, Bola Gold, told the court that police officers, who are the prosecution witnesses in the matter were on national assignment for the last Saturday rerun elections in some parts of the country and had not returned to their base.
In view of this, he sought an adjournment, which the defence counsel, Mathias Emeribe, did not oppose.
In granting the adjournment, the trial judge Haleema Salman warned both the defence and prosecuting counsels against unnecessary delay in the hearing of the matter.
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She expressed dissatisfaction that no appreciable progress had been made in the hearing of the case since 2018 when it started due to request for adjournments by the counsels.
“This is almost two years since this case started and there has not been appreciable progress. Before I went on national assignment for the election petition tribunal, it’s been one adjournment or the other, especially on the part of the defence side. I will not want nay delay any longer”, she said
The judge also said that both counsels should be prepared to end the trial within a trial in the next adjourned date so that hearing proper in the suit could commence the same day.
She subsequently adjourned the case to Monday, February 10, 2020.
Speaking with journalists after court proceedings, counsel to both parties assured of their preparedness to ensure speedy disposal of the matter.
All the accused persons; Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salahudeen Azeez and Niyi Ogundiran, were present in court on Tuesday.
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