Barr Abubakar Zain Post
“HE GOT HIS FREEDOM AFTER 7 YEARS IN PRSION.
The Man you see in this picture has spent 7 years in prison waiting for his fate, his name is Jonathan and he was wrongly accused to have raped his stepdaughter simply because someone was not in good terms with him.
Jonathan was born and brought up in Nasarawa/Kakuri, Kaduna and has spent most of life around that Area, he was a true Kakuri boy, rugged and stubborn.
In April, 2019. Jonathan was framed that he had raped his stepdaughter, he was arrested by vigilante, maltreated and later on handed over to the police in Kakuri, and from there they transferred him to state SCID and subsequently remanded in Kaduna Prison on cognizance, pending advice from Ministry of Justice.
Unfortunately for him, his mother was an aged woman and needed someone to take care for talk more of standing by his side and get him out of trouble, his only brother was a soldier and could have saved him from humiliation but was too far, he was serving in Lagos and before he could hear the news, it was already too late, Jonathan was already in Prison.
He spent about 4 years going to magistrate without any result, any time he goes to court he will hear the prosecutor saying “We have forwarded the case diary to the Ministry of justice and are waiting for legal advice” to the extent that he memorized it and going to magistrate court became a boring routine but he was always waiting for the new date with the hope that one day the advice will come and he will be released since he was innocent, that was how his life been from May 2019 and sometimes around August 2022 I came across him in Court and decided to help him Pro-Bono.
First, I obtained the FIR from Court and visited him in Prison for proper briefing and interview, then I filed a bail application on his behalf relying on sections 34, 35 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and section 174 (1) and (2) of Kaduna Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2017 which provided that a person can be granted bail on capital offences under exceptional circumstances.
I served the necessary parties with my bail application but on the day that I was supposed to move the Bail Application sometimes in December, 2022 a counsel from MOJ filed a counter affidavit and served me in Court, I had no option than to take a new date for reply, and the case was adjourned to January, 2023.
On the next adjourned date the Counsel from MOJ filed charge against him and the case changed shape, the charge was mention and he pleaded not guilty but since it’s a capital offence he cannot be granted bail.
The case was adjourned for hearing but there was no one to testify, the IPO was transferred from Kaduna, the alleged victim was nowhere to be found, the grandmother that reported the case to police has left Kaduna and just like that the case went on for more than a year with no progress whatsoever, 2023 has finished and nothing was coming from the prosecution, we entered 2024 and the same story, every time we go to court the prosecution counsel will plead with the Court for another date.
I approached the Counsel that since there is no witness available to testify let her withdraw the case and anytime her witnesses become available she can refile, and also called her attention that the Defendant’s health is not normal and he needs to get medical attention but she wasn’t taking it, she however suggested that we do plea bargain wherein the Defendant will plead guilty to a lesser offense and he will be convicted accordingly and from there he can gain his freedom, I refused that because I know that he will be discharged and acquitted because first, he was innocent and secondly, they don’t have any evidence to prove the case against him, and before we could do anything 2024 has gone and we entered 2025.
When I realized that the Defendant’s health situation was getting worse and the prosecution counsel is not helping matter, I changed my approach and agreed to the plea bargain, but that one requires long process.
I had to write a formal application and the plea bargain committee was to sit and determine that and before that could be done we were at June, 2025 and finally the plea bargain was approved.
We thought that our efforts had finally yielded the desired result, but we were far from that, there’s still a long way to go.
Now, among the condition of the plea bargain terms was that the victim must be restituted and compensated but she was nowhere to be found, we were told that that she was in Sabo Tasha, we sent someone there and for weeks, we didn’t get a good news about her, we then attempted to get the grandmother and were told that she had returned to Nasarawa State and the village she’s in is very remote to the extent that there’s no network coverage, but there is no way we can go on with the terms without any of them because there must a signature of the victim or her parent in addition to the restitution.
We went to court and picked a date in July, 2025 in anticipation that the grandmother would be in the court and the terms would be adopted and Jonathan will gain his freedom, so, we sent someone to bring her and she was brought, plea bargain terms duly signed and we were very happy, Jonathan came from prison wearing new clothes and very delighted and without any notice the registrar said My Lord called him that she woke up not feeling too well, therefore the court will not sit, our case was adjourned to September, 2025.
September came but the grandmother was in the village, we lost contact with her and the woman that knew their village had left Kaduna, we were left helpless, the case was adjourned several times up till April, 2026 but she was incommunicado.
We agreed with the state counsel that the victim aunt should stand for the grandmother and inform the court about the fact that the grandmother was in a remote village with no network connection and plead that the court should excuse her absence, so, we took a new date in May, 2026 and when the case called up, my Lord refused our pleas and insisted that either of the victim or her grandmother must be in court because my lord wants to confirm from them that they are compensated and the plea bargain was signed by them, so, the case was adjourned to 23/06/2026.
We mobilized the victim’s aunt and she went to Nasarawa state and brought the grandmother.
23/06/2026 came and we were all hopeful because the grandmother was in court, my lord sat after 10am and when the case was called my Lord asked the grandmother the necessary question and when the court was satisfied that the plea bargain agreement was entered with the consent of the grandmother and that she was compensated properly she asked us to proceed.
As we were adopting the terms, the court observed that there was error somewhere and we can’t proceed like that, we had to correct it, the court had to stand the matter down so that we can rectify the error or else the case would be adjourned, we rushed and rectified it and returned back to court and adopted the plea bargain terms.
After adoption of the terms, the court sentenced the Defendant to 5 years imprisonment commencing from the date of his arrest, which was dated back in April, 2019, my lord could not even wait to sign the conviction warrant because it was already too late and he was taken to prison for the day, he will be released the following day.
I was filled with mixed emotions and was very happy that about 8 years of undeserved imprisonment has come to an end, I spent the whole day in court with no breakfast or lunch but was satisfied with the outcome. After the calculation, Jonathan has already finished his prison term.
This case is one of the reasons that lawyers go extra mile to help their clients and assist the cause of justice.
Assisting the helpless brings us joy and makes the life of a lawyer purposefully lived.:
