The visit of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to Kaduna state halted the appearance of the leader of the Shi’ites, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat in court.
When the court sat on Thursday, ruling for bail, applied by the the defendants could not be heard because of their absence.
Speaking in an interview, after the court session, counsel to the defendants, Barrister Maxwell Kyon, said that the visit of the vice president halted progress on the matter.
“The matter was adjourned to today for further mention, I am sure you are aware that at the last adjournment date, we had argued an application for bail in respect of the first and second defendants.
“Because Osinbajo was supposed to be in Kaduna, the state could not mobilise and bring the defendants to court. According to them, it should have posed quite a lot of problem in terms of personnel for security of the Vice President and the defendants.
“Considering that the defendant was not brought to court, the ruling was not delivered. Unfortunately, for us today, we have not made much progress,” Kyon remarked that the “Court sat, and all we could do was to simply take a date. We’ve taken another date, hoping the defendants would be brought to court.
Also speaking, the prosecuting team led by Bayero Dari said that they appealed to the court to excuse the presence of the defendants in Thursday’s hearing and the court graciously agreed.
“You know Osinbajo is visiting Kaduna, security is stretched and the prosecution asked that the presence of the defendants in court be excused and the court graciously agreed,” he said.
He said the court will rule on the bail conditions when the case resumes on November 7.
It will be recalled that the leader of the shiite and his wife are been arraigned before a Kaduna court for culpable homicide.
and then