Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
A prominent Nigerian lawyer and human rights activist has revealed that the Kaduna State government has hastily filed a new charge against Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, Leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, and his wife in a desperate move to block their release.
Femi Falana, who led Sheikh Zakzaky’s defense team, said in a Sunday statement that contrary to reports that a new charge of terrorism and treasonable felony was filed after the Kaduna State High Court ordered the release of the elderly couple, it had been “hurriedly filed” on July 26 – two days prior to the ruling — in a desperate bid by the Kaduna State government to “frustrate the release of the defendants from further incarceration.”
“In other words, the new charge was maliciously filed when the Kaduna State government anticipated that the ruling fixed for July 28 in respect to our no-case submission would succeed,” Falana was quoted by local media.
The lawyer further underlined that as soon as the new charge was filed, “the bailiff of the federal high court was commanded to rush to the Kaduna correctional center to serve same on the defendants.”
“But the defendants refused to accept service of the charge and directed the bailiff to serve it on them through their Counsel. But for reasons best known to the Kaduna State government, the charge was not served on the defense counsel,” Falana noted.
The development came after the high court in Nigeria’s central State of Kaduna on Wednesday acquitted Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife, Mallimah Zeenat, of all the charges leveled against them back in 2015 and ordered them released.
The trial originally commenced on May 15, 2018, but dragged on for over three years, when the high court – presided by Judge Gideon Kurada — eventually issued its final verdict on July 28.
“At last, we defeated them. we won,” the couple’s jubilant attorney Ishaq Adam Ishaq said on Wednesday, adding, “They have gained their freedom. They are now freed and with us.”
