TECHNOCRAT MEDIA, Abuja
Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja has threatened to strike out cyberstalking case instituted against the chairman of HEDA, Olanrewaju Suraju by former Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke and Nigerian government.
The presiding judge, Justice Binta Nyako handed down this threat on Monday at the resumed hearing of the case, following an application for adjournment by the prosecution counsel, Mrs Cole, who came from the Office of Attorney General of Federation, Ministry of Justice.
Mrs Cole told the court that the adjournment was at the instance of Director of Public Prosecution ( DPP ) who had requested that the case file be returned to him for further review.
She therefore prayed the court for short adjournment to enable the DPP examine the case file.
Whule reacting to the prayer, Justice Nyako threatened to strike out the case if DPP fails again.
“If the DPP makes this mistake again, they will pay for the airfare and hotel accommodation of the defense counsel, it is the last adjournment, or this case will be struck out,” Justice Nyako ruled.
The counsel from the office of the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) in the Federal Ministry of Justice had prayed the trial judge, Justice Binta Nyarko, to adjourn the case to allow them more time to study and review the case file.
The defense counsel, Muiz Banire, while objecting to the plea for adjournment by the prosecution counsel, decried that his client and the team were going through a lot of stress, having to travel from Lagos State to Abuja now and then.
Mr Suraju has been charged with cyberstalking for allegedly circulating the fake audio of a phone interview said to have been planted to implicate Mohammed Bello Adoke, former attorney-general of the federation (AGF), in the OPL 245 saga, in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CR/370/21.
According to Mr Banire, the earlier scheduled arraignment on January 24, 2022, could not proceed over the failure of the prosecution to serve the defendant and court with the proof of evidence.
Justice Nyako, while adjourning the case, reiterated that she would not hesitate to strike out the case if the prosecution appeared in court on the adjourned date of February 18, 2022, unprepared, adding that the prosecution risks paying for logistics and transportation expenditures of the defense team.
