Family Kick Against Prosecution of Adedoyin, Others in Abuja Over Murder of OAU Student
The family of the murdered student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Timothy Adegoke have kicked against arraigning suspects in Abuja.
NPO Reports gathered that counsel to the family had written to the police headquarters in Abuja saying that it would be against the law to arraign Ramon Adedoyin, owner of the Hilton Honours Hotel, Ife and six other suspects at a Federal High Court in Abuja.
It was learnt that Police, in spite of the protest letter, had filed a case of interference against Adedoyin at a Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday.
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In the letter, the counsel, Naim Adekilekun, had stated “As we are preparing for the prosecution of the suspects arrested in connection to this murder, we wish to state that it has filtered to us that the Police in Abuja is ready to proffer a charge against the suspects in respect of this case at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. It must be stated here that the family never doubted the competence of the Police to prosecute this case to a logical conclusion. But as the Solicitors to the family we have our reservation to the prosecution of this case at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.”
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Giving reasons for the objection, the counsel stated in the letter, “To start with, in criminal prosecution, the Court in the territorial jurisdiction of the area of the alleged crime will be seised of the case and nothing more, although this may not be the case of some Federal offences triable at the Federal High Court of any judicial Division and the reason for, is not far-fetched this can be traced to the fact that the Law recognizes Federal High Court of Nigeria to be one and single court irrespective of the Division.
“This explains the reason why a case instituted in Federal High Court A may be transferred to Federal High Court B if there is a need for that. This is not the case in respect of High Court of different State. A High Court of Osun State for example cannot transfer a case to the High Court of Oyo State for adjudication. A High Court of a State will be one in division with respect to other High Court in the same State and not a High Court of the other state.”
