Deborah: SAN asserts mild charges against suspects, attacks Tambuwal, Police
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa has conveyed resentment over the “watery charges” filed against the two suspects apprehended over Deborah Samuel’s murder.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) condemned the “Criminal Conspiracy and Inciting Public Disturbance” offences they were arraigned for.
He said the Sokoto government and police charges “against hardened murderers is an insult to the sensibilities of the parents of the deceased, the people of Nigeria and God who created Deborah”.
In a statement, Adegboruwa noted that the crime took place in a higher institution, under the watch of security men who were overpowered.
The SAN told the authorities that students sent messages and threats of death to a WhatsApp group.
He said their phone lines are registered with National Identification Number (NIN) and they belong to a class “so they are known individuals”.
Adegboruwa decried how youths “openly and boastfully confessed of partaking in the murder, with one displaying the match stick with which the deceased was set ablaze”.
The vocal lawyer said the Sokoto government has, by the charges, “shown itself complicit in this whole drama and it is most unfortunate”.
He said the state is headed by a lawyer – Governor Aminu Tambuwal – and ex-House of Representatives Speaker who is aspiring to be Nigeria’s President.
“It is most uncharitable of His Excellency to have condoned this baseless charge. It is better to set the suspects free rather than claim to try them.”
The legal practitioner said the aftermath of the killing, the “watery charges and the consenting attitude of those concerned” were depressed.
“Nigeria cannot work this way at all. I’m truly saddened. If the impression we get with is that the State endorsed the murder, then we are sowing the seeds of discord.”
Adegboruwa insists Tambuwal’s 2023 presidential ambition should not override the life of a human.
“It is better to resign, rather than go down in history as the Governor under whose watch a citizen was murdered and the Governor could not enforce the laws but aided and abetted its cover-up”, he noted.
