Long Road To Freedom: Court Discharges Lovers After 6 Years In Detention

Two lovers who spent 6 years in prison for a crime they did not commit have been discharged and acquitted. After spending 6 years in prison » over a crime they did not commit, a court sitting in Ado Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State, has discharged and acquitted two lovers, Kenneth George and Evelyn Okechukwu, who have been in detention for an alleged case of theft. The court found that there was no evidence to charge the two and condemned the prosecution for doing a shoddy job, thereby taking away 6 years from the lives of the two young people. Justice Isaac Akintayo, who gave the judgment said: I hold that the prosecution has failed to prove its case against the accused persons as required in law, therefore, no reasonable court or tribunal will convict them. Justice Akintayo thereafter ordered that the accused be discharged and acquitted on all the five counts charges brought against them by the prosecution. The lovers were first accused of theft at 14, Igbole Road, Ido-Ekiti in Ido/Osi local government area of the Ekiti State and charged to court in 2008 on a five-count charge of robbery and conspiracy » . According to the prosecutor, their offence contravened section 1 (2)(a) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions)Act, cap R 11, vol. 14, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004. Despite the accused pleading not guilty and the case not properly handled by the prosecution, they were remanded in prison custody and have been in prison for the past 6 years before their appeal was heard and they finally got their freedom.