Funsho Williams’ murder and prosecution albatross

For eight years, Ikponmwose and co-accused, Bulama Kolo, Musa Maina, David Cassidy, Tunani Sonoma and Mustapha Kayode, battled the grueling trial with the last breath on them, hoping that they would be vindicated one day. Their glorious day obviously came penultimate Monday when they were freed of the charges!Ikponmwose, who was the leader of the […]

For eight years, Ikponmwose and co-accused, Bulama Kolo, Musa Maina, David Cassidy, Tunani Sonoma and Mustapha Kayode, battled the grueling trial with the last breath on them, hoping that they would be vindicated one day. Their glorious day obviously came penultimate Monday when they were freed of the charges!
Ikponmwose, who was the leader of the police team guarding the late PDP stalwart was confronted with triple tragedy while he was under detention.
According to him, he was sacked by the Nigeria Police Force, his wife left him and his ordeal caused his mother a terminal stroke .
Mustapha Kayode who also narrated his ordeal said he was also given the boot by the Nigeria Police Force, lost his three-months-old daughter, who never had the opportunity of knowing him, while  his mother got blind due to uncontrollable weeping.
The air of freedom breathed to them by the court verdict seems to have overshadowed the current state of Ikponmwose, Mustapha and others who may have been ostracised by their relations and  loved ones during their trying times.
Justice Ebenezer Adebayo held that the evidence adduced by the prosecution to prove the two-count charge of conspiracy and murder against the accused was weak and superficial. He also said in his verdict that an analysis of the pieces of evidence adduced by the state at the trial revealed that they were at best circumstantial.
According to him, the state failed to establish the fact that the defendants conspired to kill Williams, adding that while the prosecution alleged that the fourth to six defendants, policemen deployed to provide security for Williams, made calls with their co-defendants with the deceased phone number, the state however failed to produce the call logs of the exchange in court.
He also said the prosecution failed to show that the mobile phone actually belonged to Williams. The court noted that Williams was killed but said the prosecution could not establish a link between the crime and the defendants.
He said: “I am satisfied that the deceased died, but there was nothing to show those responsible for his death. In the final analysis, the evidence is manifestly unreliable for the court to call upon the defendants to defend themselves.’’
The discharge and acquittal of defendants in the murder of Funso Williams is not the first to occur in recent times in the country.
Last year, a  lead judgement delivered by Justice Rita Pemu and supported by the presiding judge, Justice Amina Augie and Justice F.O. Akinbami respectively freed Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late General Sani Abacha of  complicity in the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola in 1996.
The court held that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt that there was a link between Al-Mustapha and the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.
The court set aside  the verdict  of the lower court, which sentenced Al-Mustapha to death, adding that the prosecution failed to establish the charge of conspiracy and murder against the appellants . It said  it was foolhardy and unreasonable for the lower court to have hurriedly convicted the appellants when it was evident that the prosecution had a bad case.
Similarly, the suspected killers of Pa Alfred Rewane  were freed of the charges of murder by a Lagos court due to the shoddy prosecution of the case.
In the same vein, an Abuja High Court recently lambasted the State Security Service over shoddy prosecution of the case involving suspected terrorist, Kabir Sokoto.
There are other high-profile cases in the country which couldn’t see the light of the day due to the shoddy manner they were handled by the prosecution.
Legal minds and scholars in Nigeria have most times pointed accusing fingers at prosecution for the shoddy treatment of criminal cases which elongates the matter and makes the accused suffer untold hardship in solitary confinement.
Observers also say police obsession to speedily draft charges or amend charges against accused is an exercise which eventually resulted in shoddy prosecution of cases of which the judiciary is sometimes accused of delay in the dispensation of justice.
An instance of this is the dismissal of the Halliburton bribery scandal case by Justice Abubakar, who said: “It has been over a year now and still the EFCC is coming up with excuses. The EFCC should know that if it is not ready to prosecute and bring cases to conclusion, it should not apply for a leave of court to arraign anybody.’’
Retired Justice Charles Archibong of a Lagos Federal High Court dismissed the amended 26-count filed against Erastus Akingbola over serious and professional incompetence of the prosecution team comprising five Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN).
Perhaps that’s why the eminent English jurist, Blackstone J, warned that it is better to let nine guilty men free than to convict one innocent  man. Human rights lawyer, Barrister Femi Aborishade told our correspondent that the discharge and acquittal of the six suspected killers of Funsho Williams by the Lagos State High Court on 30 June, 2014, has unfortunately reconfirmed the reign of the culture of impunity in Nigeria, wherein perpetrators of heinous crimes against humanity get away without being brought to justice.
He said the inability of the state to establish a nexus between the murder of Funsho Williams and those who killed Funsho Williams will no doubt encourage more outrageous dastardly acts of murder, knowing full well that murderers in Nigeria are never brought to account for their evil deeds.
According to him, the  late Justice Oputa, JSC, in the case of Josiah v State (1985) has pointed out that justice is not a one-way traffic but a 3-way traffic – justice for the accused, justice for the victim and justice for the society.
He explained that the implication of the dictum propounded by Justice Oputa is that the prosecution needed to have done more to get any accused convicted.
‘’From the newspaper reports that we have read, it does not appear that the prosecution bothered to present any finger print analysis. Whether the failure to present such forensic analysis was caused by technical incapacity or political pressures and compromises is a reflection of the general weaknesses of the Nigerian criminal justice system.
‘’The inability of the state to evidentially link the murder of Funsho Williams to those who actually murdered Funsho Williams is a further confirmation that Nigeria is a failed state – a state that lacks the capacity to guarantee security of the citizenry, contrary to the mandate contained in Section 14 (2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended. Unless past murders and assassinations are solved, the culprits established and punished, the state of insecurity in Nigeria will undoubtedly accentuate rather than diminish.
“According to Section 33 of Nigeria’s constitution, life is sacred and the right to life is a fundamental right. The inability of the rulers of Nigeria to guarantee security of life and to bring to justice those who intentionally kill others means that the ruling class in Nigeria has lost the right to continue to rule. Rather than consuming the wealth of Nigeria in stupendous and nauseating corruption, the resources of Nigeria should be used to guarantee the welfare and security of the Nigerian people,” he said.
Another human rights lawyer, Chris Momoh, expressed worry over shoddy handling of cases by prosecution and advocated the need to overhaul all facets of criminal justice administration in Nigeria with a view to promoting judicial efficacy.