The Kaduna State Department of Public Prosecutions, DPP, has closed it’s case against the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, Sheikh Ibraheem el-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat.
Zakzaky and his wife have been standing trial for a criminal case since December 2015 following a clash in the state capital, Zaria between his followers and the military.
The prosecution at the resumed hearing, closed its case by calling its last witness to testify. This brought the total number of witnesses presented in the court to 15.
The Director of Public Prosecution, Mr Dari Bayero, told journalists after the court session that “the State called 15 witnesses to prove their case against the accused persons and expressed confidence that justice would prevail at the end.
“The State finally rested its case by calling the last witness; it intended to call to this trial.
He said as far as the state is concern, it has tendered all the exhibits, and all the key actors, key players of the case have been called and have given their submissions.
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“I am very satisfied. We have called 15 witnesses for the prosecution; top are Army Generals who were key actors in the whole saga that led to the filing of the charges against El-Zakzaky.”
On the part of the Defence counsels, Lead Counsel to Zakzaky, Femi Falana (SAN), who was represented in court by Marshal Abubakar, stated that “There has been no case submission so far, what we filed earlier was a motion to quash and trash before the commencement of the trial. But at this stage, the state has indeed called their witnesses and it is our view that there is no case so far established against the defendants. ”
“Filing an application to ask the court to declare that the defendants do not really have to call witness in the ongoing trial but to have them enter into ‘no case submission’ because so far based on the evidence advanced this far all the 15 witnesses in our estimation had not made submission or given evidence that incriminate the defendants. So, it is an upcase that we would be entering ‘no case submission”.
Justice Gideon Kurada who was the presiding judge, adjourned the case to May 25 for ruling on ‘No case submission.’
