Disquiet and palpable fear have enveloped the atmosphere in Ezioha – Mmaku, a hilly community in Awgu LGA, of Enugu state, in the South East region of Nigeria, following the leak of information that the Magistrate Court sitting in Awgu town plans to release sometime this week, two murder suspects remanded by a sister Magistrate Court sitting in Mgbidi in the same LGA two weeks ago.
The suspects, Nnamdi Orji and Obinna Alor and eight others still at large were denied bail by the Mgbidi Magistrate court presided over by a Chief Magistrate, on the gravity of the crimes they were arraigned for, which included armed robbery, attempted murder, deprivation of liberty, malicious damage and assault occasioning harm.
According to credible sources close to the magistrate, the counsel representing Obeagu and the accused persons have surreptitiously filed an application, before the Awgu Magistrate court, seeking the release of the remanded accused persons.
The development it was reliably gathered is causing uneasy calm in the community.
It was further gathered that the people of Ezioha Mmaku are worried that the judicial head of the court, who is allegedly notorious for granting hardened and violent accused persons underserved bail, may accede to his request.
A community leader of Ezioha – Mmaku Chief Okeke Maduabuchi confirmed the situation, saying, the community is worried.
“How they intend to perfect the plan in the face of the law that forbids a Magistrate to countermand a detention order of another Magistrate court of equal jurisdiction, is still baffling,” he added.
“Every lawyer, even the ones just off Law School know that to appeal against a detention order of a magistrate court, you have to go to a High Court, not another Magistrate court” the community leader asserted.
The conduct of the judicial officer in question does not seem to be meeting the expectations of security authorities in the LGA.
Well informed sources around the security agencies in the LGA, told the press that there had been instances in the past, where an accused person pleaded guilty at arraignment and the prosecution made strident plea for sentencing, according to the dictates of the law as informed by police investigations, but he had ruled contrary, choosing to caution and discharge“Not even the pleadings and testimony of community leaders that the accused persons had become nuisance in their communities, they told the court of how the accused used to beat and rape both married and unmarried women in their communities” mattered at the time.“Some ruling by this judicial officer is seriously becoming very worrisome, you can imagine releasing a accused person after a plea of guilty by accused persons? Imagine a community coming to court to testify that we do not want this person anymore because of his bad life, actions and violence and releasing the same person to go home”, our well informed security source queried.
The continued unknown whereabouts of one Ekene Arukwe who attempted to use forged documents to collect an item from an accused person in police custody who was remanded but eventually released by the same judicial officer after only one week in detention is still creating sleepless nights for the police in Awgu.
In its ruling May 2, 2024, the Magistrate Court sitting in Mgbidi had denied the accused persons bail and ordered their detention in prison custody.
It further ruled that the President General of Obeagu must produce the other eight accused person who he took on police bail at its next sitting on May 10, 2024.
