Haruna, an Arabic teacher in Mushin, Lagos State was arrested on the 3rd April 2023. His offence was buying a phone he never knew was stolen. Upon his arrest, he tried tracing the seller but to no avail, so he was charged to court for stealing of a mobile phone.
He was arraigned in May 2023 and was in prison till 27th of July 2024 (one year and 3months) when he perfected his bail.
Haruna got in touch with Headfort’s team at Ebutte Metta,Lagos state during the team’s visit to the court cell on the 22nd day of July 2024 when they realised that for over one year, neither the complainant nor the IPO showed up in court and the court kept adjourning the matter in blatant disregard to Section 36(4) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).
On the 26th day of August, the matter came up again and our lawyer applied to the court, quoting the relevant sections of the law and prayed the court to strike out the matter for lack of diligent prosecution and this time, the court granted the application.