Threatens to release criminals on bail

By Onozure Dania & Hope Ofobike

Lagos—Justice Aishat Opesanwo of Lagos High Court, Igbosere, has lambasted the state’s prosecutors for lack of diligence in handling cases.

She also threatened to start granting bails to criminals, if the prosecutors failed to sit up in pushing their cases in court.

According to her, it is very embarrassing that she has been presiding over matters in the court for over one year without a single judgement.

*Court

She said: “I have been here for over a year and not one judgment has been passed. It is an embarrassment. Bail applications is all I attend to; once you go in to trial within trial, everything is stucked.

“We are like a moving train that is going nowhere, while passengers keep coming. The situation will compel me to start granting bails to armed robbers. You know what that means.”

Justice Opesanwo, who was very furious with the way the prosecutor, Afolabi Sholebo, was handling the cases in her court.

She said: “If you cannot do what you ought to do, my garment will be stained and I will not like to be involved. I have to remove myself.

“It seems I am waiting on you and it should not be so. Perhaps we should set bail conditions and let them go.

“We would adjourn the matter and give the prosecution time to react to applications. If he does not react to the application within the time frame, the cases will be struck out.”

Opesanwo also said that the prosecution had about 600 cases before her, lamenting that there was nothing to show for it.

She also said that the prosecution portrayed the court differently, adding that once the prosecutor left the court, he forgot about the cases.

She said: “You come to court without case file, but with a sheet of paper. What does it cost to create a file jacket? I do not think it makes sense. This division is pure embarrassment.”

She stated further that within last week and yesterday (Thursday), she had struck out 10 cases of armed robbery for lack of diligent prosecution.

She advised that the prosecutor should have a way of communicating with the Director of Public Prosecution, Olabisi Ogungbesan, “if you do not have the man power.”

In his response, Afolabi said his office had internal problems, which had made things tedious for the counsel.