A magistrate court in Apapa has officially freed 17-year-old, Alabi Quadri, the teenager who went viral for standing in front of the convoy of former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Magistrate Adetola Olorunfemi granted Quadri’s release following legal advice issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The magistrate confirmed that the legal advice issued by the DPP showed that there was no evidence to support the charge of armed robbery initially leveled against the teenager.
In his legal advice, the DPP recommended the non-prosecution of Quadri and another defendant, one Muiz Animashaun.
Quadri and Animashaun were standing trial alongside three others for the offence of armed robbery.
The DPP in his advice, however, recommended that a prima facie case had been made against the other three defendants and they should proceed to stand trial.
At the time of filing this report, legal representatives and family members were still completing the necessary documentation for the magistrate to sign the warrant for Quadri’s release to his parents.
In an interview with journalists after the courts sitting, counsel for Quadri, Inibehe Effiong, commended the DPP for standing by the truth in this matter.
He also demanded that the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, and the Inspector General of Police, should as a matter of urgency, remove the DPO of Amukoko Divisional Headquarters and subject him to orderly room trial along with the IPO, one Inspector Odigbe Samuel, and other officers who participated in what he called the “evil, sinister, oppressive, and corrupt scheme of framing-up a teenager for armed robbery at the behest of rogue ‘Area Boys’”.
The lawyer also demands that the Nigeria Police Force should pay the sum of One Hundred Million Naira (₦100m) to his client as compensation and they should also tender a public apology.
Inibehe said if the above three remedial demands were not fully complied with immediately, he and the team of lawyers would initiate legal actions to seek redress.
For him, Quadri’s case is a painful example of the putrefying corruption, monstrous impunity, and pervasive injustice in the Nigeria Police Force.
“There are many Quadris languishing in detention centres across Nigeria because of the unbridled criminality, lawlessness, and lack of accountability in the Police institution and the weakness of the justice system. History will vindicate the just,” Inibehe said.
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