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| Anambra State Chief Judge, Justice Peter Umeadi, |
The Anambra state
Chief Judge, Justice Peter Umeadi, has condemned the slack prosecution of cases
by the State Department of Public Prosecution.
Umeadi stated this
during jail delivery service at the Awka prisons on Friday where an armed
robbery suspect, Ndubuisi Baluolisa, billed for discharge over long stay was
reported to have died some days before.
The late Beluolisa
had reportedly spent over six years behind bars .
Beluolisa was
listed among four inmates under the ‘very sick’ category whose cases were
expected to be treated compassionately by the CJ on the mission.
When the name of
Beluolisa was called for him to appear for his matter, the court was taken
aback when the prison doctor, Frank Uzor, informed the CJ that the
suspect had died.
The doctor said,
“At a point Ndubuisi started losing weight and we took him to the Amaku
Specialist Hospital and took samples of his sputum for analysis, but he later
died. We suspect he died of pulmonary tuberculosis.”
Records showed
that Beluolisa had on July 9, 2010, applied for bail after the
Police had forwarded his file to the court.
Apparently angered
by the situation, the CJ had to question why the deceased was kept in detention
for six years after he had applied for bail.
The state Director
of Public Prosecution, Mr. Osunkwo told the CJ that one T.C. Obuekwe was
handling Beluolisa’s file, adding that he did not know the problem that made
the case to delay for six years .
Regretting that
nothing happened after the police forwarded the case file to the DPP, Justice
Umeadi directed that the family of the deceased should be written to inform
them of Baluolisa’s demise.
He also ordered
the DPP to do a letter to his (Chief Judge’s) office to explain what happened
to Baluolisa.
“DPP, this is not
how it should be. We must take charge of our responsibilities. I don’t see the
sense in keeping a man who applied for bail since 2010 to continue to be
here and now he has died. This is unfair,” the CJ stated.
Source: ThePunchng