Kaduna state government vows to appeal acquittal of El-Zakzaky, wife

The Kaduna State Government has declared interest to appeal the court judgment which discharged and acquitted the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, of all charges brought against him by the state government.

Penpushing reports that, Justice Gideon Kurada of the Kaduna State High Court on Wednesday upheld the no-case submission by El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat, as the court said the charges were retroactive as the state government arraigned them for an alleged act that was not a crime at the time they were allegedly committed.

The court held that the charges were filed against Mr El-Zakzaky and his wife in 2018, in pursuant to a Penal law enacted by the state government in 2017, over an alleged offence committed in 2015.

Penpushing reports that, the lead prosecution counsel, Dari Bayero, however, posited that there was no doubt that the government would appeal the case ,adding that the state government had obtained the court judgement because it was not in agreement.

“We are going to appeal; there is no doubt about it. In fact, we have obtained the court judgment because we are not in agreement with My Lord’s reasoning and conclusion. It is not in consonance with the facts on ground”, Bayero emphasied

Penpushing further reports that, on the judgement one of the defence  counsels, Sadau Garba, said the court found that the eight-count charge filed in 2018 against  El-Zakzaky was pursuant to the penal law enacted by the state government in 2017, while the defendants were alleged to have committed the crime in 2015.

The lead counsel to the defendants, Marshal Abubakar, who represented the counsel to the case, Femi Falana (SAN), in the same vein declared  that the trial of El-Zakzaky and his wife Zeenat has come to end as the court found them not guilty of the alleged crime filed against them by the Kaduna State government.

Penpushing also reports that the lawyer pointed out that, the court equally  ruled that the events of December 12 and 15 December 2015 were not an offence and cannot be attributed to the defendants.

“The court ruled that the charge was incompetent as the court agreed that El-Zakzaky and his wife had committed no offence, The court, thereby, discharged and acquitted the defendants as there should have been no charge in the first place. No party asked for a fine,” he said.

Penpushing reports that, as at the time of filing this report,the Kaduna State Director of Public Prosecution, Dari Bayero, had declined to speak to journalists  after the court judgment was made public.

The couple, it is recalled  has been standing trial in the court for the past four years on an eight-count charge of culpable homicide, disruption of public peace and unlawful assembly among others.

Penpushing further reports that, the Kano State Government  accused the couple  of being responsible for the death of a soldier when soldiers massacred over 300 protesting Shiites in December 2015.

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