TELL Magazine

The 150 prisoners freed by a High Court judge in Rivers State in December 2020 would know if they can walk free from prison come August 19th. That is when another High Court will rule on an application filed by the Rivers State Government contesting their release.

Justice Chinwedu Wogu adjourned the matter after the lawyer to the state government, Chidi Eke moved the application to set aside the judgment that freed the prisoners on the grounds that the lawyer to the prisoners misrepresented facts and that the judgment was secured fraudulently. But the lawyer to the prisoners, Oluchi Omereji, countered the argument by saying that Justice Wogu cannot sit on a decision delivered by a court of coordinate jurisdiction.

Justice Gilbert Ollor in December last year delivered a judgment in a suit filed by Access to Freedom International, a civil society organization, seeking to free 150 inmates of the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre after spending between eight and nine years without trial.

The state government had opposed the judgment on the grounds that the inmates needed to stand trial for the offences they were arrested and detained for.

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