By Abdulsalam Muhammad
KANO – Five suspects believed to have conspired and murdered a Kano based Igbo woman trader, Mrs Bridget Agbaheme are to spend three weeks in prison following botched effort by the defence lawyer to secure their bail.

In an application filed on Tuesday by the defence counsel, Barrister Gambo AbdulSalam requested the court to set the high profile suspects free, stressing that the First Information Report by the police does not constitute charges in the eyes of the law.

The defence lawyer said “FIR is simply an allegation and it is not sufficient to hold onto somebody, and in other words, FIR amount to nothing but just an information”.

The defence counsel therefore asked the court to grant bail to the suspect, as he opposed the police demand to take them back into custody for investigation.

The sitting on Tuesday in Kano which was conducted under tight security attracted crowd of sympathisers across the divides.

In his application also, the prosecuting counsel, Mr Ekwe Sunday requested the court not to grant the suspects bail adding that “releasing the suspects will jeopardize the case”.

Adjourning the matter to July 20th for ruling on the bail application, the presiding Magistrate, Mohammed Jibril directed the suspects to be remanded in prison.