Fresh tension in Kaduna as trial of El-Zakzaky resumes

There were indications of fresh tension in Kaduna, Kaduna State, as the prosecution of the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, and his wife Zinat, resumed in Kaduna on Wednesday.

Accordingly, the government mobilized security operatives in the city to forestall breakdown of law and order within the Kaduna State High Court and its environs.

Counsel to the defendants, Marshall Abubakar, representing the lead counsel, Femi Falana SAN, filed a no-case submission, requesting the court to throw out the case for lack of merit.

Abubakar had argued that the Kaduna State government has failed to “disclose an offence known to law contrary to Section 36 (8) and (12) of the 1999 constitution as amended” against his clients.

The presiding judge, Justice Gideon Kurada, in his judgment, dismissed the no-case application. He stated that the application was premature in view of the clear provisions of the Kaduna State administration of criminal justice

Justice Kurada held that ruling on a no-case application should come after the accused persons might have taken their plea and after hearing on the whole matter is concluded. He, then, ruled that case continues on Wednesday, and Thursday, November 19, 2020, for trial and to enable the prosecution counsel to present his witnesses before the court.

El- Zakzaky and his wife were arrested after  the December 2015 fracas between members of the IMN and the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, during procession in Zaria, Kaduna State.

The Kaduna State government is prosecuting them on an eight-count charge of alleged culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, and disruption of the public peace among other charges.