After four years without trial, NGO secures release of two inmates

A not-for-profit organisation, Citizens’ Gavel, has secured the release of two men imprisoned for four years without trial in Lagos.

They were discharged and acquitted on Tuesday September 29 after the organisation pursued justice for them.

One of the inmates was said to have been arrested before he wore a slipper similar to that of a complainant while the other, a hawker, was arrested by police during a raid.

The group, in a post of X, stated it became aware of their ordeals in January 2024 during a visitation to the Medium Security Correctional Centre ‘’where our legal team in Lagos, interviewed them and discovered that, despite having been arrested since 2022, they had never been taken to court.’’

The NGO added: ‘’Immediately, our legal team took up their cases and began tracking the matter at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), eventually tracing the case to the court of Justice Coker.’’

The group said the first appearance in the matter was in March 2024 with seven more before Justice Coker as well as many applications urging the Court to to strike out the case despite all the adjournments and the prosecution failing to produce a single witness.

It added: ‘’Early in 2025, we were informed that Justice Coker was on official assignment and that the matter would be transferred to another court. Once again, our legal team began the painstaking process of tracking the case to determine where it had been transferred. We eventually discovered that the matter had been transferred to the court of Justice Oshodi.

We appeared before Justice Oshodi for the first time in March 2025. The charges were read to the defendants, and both men pleaded NOT GUILTY.

‘’At the close of the prosecution's case, we filed a No Case Submission, arguing that the prosecution had failed to establish a case requiring the defendants to answer and the case was subsequently adjourned for ruling.

‘’Today, the wait is finally over!

‘’The Court delivered its ruling in our favour, upheld our No Case Submission, and consequently discharged and acquitted both men.’’

The group informed: ‘’ What makes this victory even more profound is that throughout this nearly four-year ordeal, not a single member of either defendant's family appeared in court. No other lawyer also represented them. They endured years in custody largely unseen and unheard.’’