Court: We’ll strike out alleged treason case against Sowore if…

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, threatened to strike out the alleged treason case against the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, if the prosecution fails to put its house in order.

The matter was slated for re-arraignment of the defendants but when the matter was called, only Sowore was present in court.

The prosecuting counsel, Mariam Okorie, told the court that on the last adjourned date, the court had ordered that the hearing notice be served on the second defendant, Olawale Bakare.

She, however, said she was not aware if Bakare had been served with the notice.

The registrar of the court, however, confirmed that Bakare had not been served.

Sowore’s counsel, Marshall Abubakar, told the court that he believed the prosecution was only trying to frustrate his client by its inability to serve the second defendant the hearing notice for him to appear in court.

Abubakar told the court that he had written a letter to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice asking that the charge be severed so that his client could take his plea and stand trial alone.

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He said: ”My lord, this is the fifth year since this charge was filed, the defendant has been denied access to his family since then because he has not been allowed to travel outside the country where his family lives.

“You cannot continually and perpetually hold the man under suspicion that he committed a crime and so we will apply that this case be struck out until the prosecution is ready to prosecute it.”

The prosecuting counsel told the court that since they had written to the minister, they would have to wait for the minister’s response to know the next line of action.

The presiding judge, Justice Emeka Nwite, ruled that he was minded to grant an adjournment on the condition that by the next adjourned date, the prosecution should comply with the order of court to serve the second defendant.

The judge warned that if the order of court to serve the 2nd defendant was not complied with, the matter would be struck out.

“If you are not ready to go on with the matter, I am sounding this as the last warning that at the next adjourned date, I will strike out the matter even if heaven falls let it fall,” Justice Nwite said

He, therefore, adjourned the matter until December 5.

The Federal Government had dragged Sowore and Bakare to court on allegations of treason and attempts to overthrow former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Star