A criminal charge slammed against four Lebanese arrested in connection with an illegal arms cache discovered in Kano, Northern Nigeria, was on Wednesday struck out by Chief Magistrate Muyiwa Oyeyepo of Karu Magistrate Court in Abuja.
A criminal charge slammed against four Lebanese arrested in connection with an illegal arms cache discovered in Kano, Northern Nigeria, was on Wednesday struck out by Chief Magistrate Muyiwa Oyeyepo of Karu Magistrate Court in Abuja.
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The Department of State Security, SSS, had filed the charge on 5 June following the arrest of the Lebanese in connection with the unlawful importation and possession of the large cache of prohibited firearms and other weapons of mass destruction discovered at a residence in Kano.
The court also struck out the preliminary objection filed on behalf of the accused persons by their lawyer, Mr. Ahmed Raji, a senior advocate of Nigeria, wherein he challenged the competence of the magistrate court to handle the matter.
The suspects include the co-owner of popular Amigo Supermarket at the Wuse 2 District of Abuja metropolis, Mustapha Fawaz. Others are Abdalah Thaini,
The prosecutor, Mr. Cliff Osagie, had applied for the withdrawal of the First Investigation Report upon which the charge was predicated on the grounds that further investigations conducted on the illegal importation of the firearms showed that the scope and magnitude of the offence is beyond what the magistrate court can adequately handle.
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“The accused persons were remanded based on the charge in the FIR but investigation has progressed extensively and facts that appear in the course of investigation are clearly related to offences which are outside the jurisdiction of this court” the SSS lawyer told the court.
While striking out the charge, Chief Magistrate Oyeyipo averred, “Having listened to the oral application of the prosecuting counsel and the submission of the defence counsel, I hereby grant as prayed that the charge filed on the basis of First Information Report, FIR, on June 5, 2013 is hereby struck out”.
Having struck out the charge, the court also discharged the preliminary objection filed by the suspects’ lawyer
Mr. Osagie thereafter applied that the FIR file of the accused persons be returned to the SSS, adding that the case file has been forwarded to the Attorney General of the Federation for further action on the matter.
Any hope of walking away from the court as free men after their charge had been struck out was quickly erased as the suspects were arrested and bundled into a waiting Peugeot Expert with Abuja registration BWR 245 AJ under heavy security.
The SSS had alleged that the Lebanese are members of Hezbollah military wing in Lebanon.
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