Yakubu Busari
A Plateau State High court in Jos has adjourned the matter of Shehu Jatau & 3 others for opening of defense , and also struck out the preliminary objection raised by the prosecutor for not seeking the order for filing out of time.
The matter was adjourned for a ruling on the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the suit to give a report on the status of the case.
Shehu Jatau & 3 ors have been in detention since he was brought back from Abuja on June 19, 2020
Delivering the ruling in the P.O argued by the objector counsel, Prof. S.S.Shikyil sought the order of the court to quash all count charges filed against his client and set him free.
Justice S. P.Gang held that the prosecutor flouted the P.O. for noncompliance to the guidelines by not Soughing the court order by filing out of time as a violation of section 211 subsection 1 and section 16 of the practice direction which was supported to be within 21 days.
The court further held that having illegally and forcefully renditioned the P.O , the trial court was stripped of jurisdiction to continue to try Shehu Jatau and three others of culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, unlawful possession, criminal conspiracy, in sighting crime under section 270 of the administration of the criminal act .
The judge also held that the objector’s counsel should have raised the issues earlier than but chose not to do so until now that prosecutor had already closed his case for them to open defense that he is presenting a fresh application and the court didn’t see the wisdom in it .
On the 31st Oct 2019, the team left for his hometown in Kurmi Dampar and they conducted search operations at his home, including military personnel, civil defense, and Mobile police while the SIB component by CSP Elisha and the following weapons were recovered,3 AK 47 ,3AG raffle,3 G3 ,one GPMG and one double-barrel including ammunitions 104 rounds of NATO special ammunition 111 mm special and Shehu Jatau photograph with two pictures.
We convey all these recovered items to the headquarters of STF in Jos , and were handed over to the military because we notice that those recovered Raffles belonged to them and were immediately front-loaded to the army headquarters for analysis leaving the few ammunition and photographs with the SIB unit.
The witness told the court that they registered the ammunitions and his photographs as exhibits No CER /STF/14/2019 that is all, My Lord the army in charge Major Bitrus told the items are still undergoing analysis.
The defense counsel said they are going to open their defense of proof of evidence that criminal case by the Commander of Police against Shehu Jatau and 3 others standing trial of armed robbery, murder, and culpable homicide.
