Following the Kaduna High Court’s order to the Directorate of State Services (DSS), the leader of the Shi’ite group, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife Zeenat have been transferred to the Nigerian Correctional Center, Kaduna.
The move, according to Justice Gideon Kurada, was to allow Mr. El-Zakzaky’s lawyers and doctors to have easy access to him.
It would be recalled that the IMN leader and his wife were dragged to the court for alleged culpable homicide, unlawful assembly and disruption of public peace among other charges in another court and has been in custody of the DSS since 2015.
Justice Kurada had on April 25 adjourned the trial of the IMN leader indefinitely to enable him to serve on the panel of the Presidential and National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal in Yobe.
At the resumed hearing of the case on Thursday, Magashi who stood in for the lead counsel to the IMN leader and his wife, Femi Falana (SAN), applied for his clients’ transfer to the Kaduna Prisons, now known as Correctional Center.
Magashi told newsmen shortly after the case was adjourned to Feb. 6, 2020 for hearing, that the team of counsel to the IMN leader had always had difficulties whenever they want to see him at the DSS detention facility.
Magashi said the Counsel and Medical Doctors would have easy access to the IMN leader and his wife if transferred to the correctional facility in Kaduna and that would speed up the trial of his clients.
The order equally took the team of prosecution by the storm, when the prosecution counsel led by Dari Bayero appeared in court set to continue with the trial of the IMN leader and his wife.
Bayero who is the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) at the Kaduna State Ministry of Justice told newsmen that his team was ready for the trial but it was stalled.
He, however, said that the team would appear set for the trial on the adjourned date of Feb. 6, 2020.
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Your story on Sheikh Zakzaky’s transfer to prison needs some correction.
The counsel to the Sheikh didn’t apply for the Sheikh’s transfer. He only complained on the denial of access to the Sheikh to them. The transfer to prison was entirely the court’s.