By George Mgbeleke <\/p>\n
Even as the trial of eleven persons accused of killing ARISE News journalist, Somtochukwu Maduagwu, was stalled on Tuesday at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory due to the absence of the defendants in court, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) through the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko has urged the Honourable federal Attorney General and minister of Justice Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to take over the prosecution to ensure swift, decisive and professionally excellent trial. <\/p>\n
HURIWA said it is inexplicable and absolutely unacceptable that the prosecution team and the officials of the Correctional Service have caused undue delay of the matter which in the view of HURIWA is one of the top-most public interest matter given the circumstances of the death of the journalist and the fact that millions of the viewers of ARISE News television were violently deprived of the creative presence of Miss. Maduagwu whose precious was taken away by the men of the underworld who have been reportedly caught by the police. HURIWA stated that millions of Nigerians are interested to know how the government has handled the prosecution of the suspects and it will be a spectacular image problem for Nigeria should this show of shame by the Correctional Service officers continue.<\/p>\n
“We in HURIWA think that if there is any legal matter in which the presence of the Honourable Federal Attorney General is needed urgently, then this case that the prosecution has already started to delay the hearing through avoidable technicality is that top priority public interest case. We are aware that the AGF has on some occasions in the recent times, taken over some cases from the respective prosecution teams and decided to that his office would henceforth handle them. We urge Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to take over the prosecution of the accused killers of the ARISE News journalist so that the Correctional Service officers wouldn’t have any further flimsy excuse not to produce the suspects before the court of law to face the long arm of the law. HURIWA warned that should the prosecution of these alleged killers of the ARISE NEWS JOURNALIST be mismanaged, then Nigerians would never trust the administration of criminal justice by the government. <\/p>\n
The proceedings were halted after the authorities of the Kuje Correctional Centre failed to convey the defendants to the court. At the resumed hearing, prosecution counsel, Adama Musa, informed the court of the defendants\u2019 absence, although their lawyers were present. He expressed frustration, stating that prison officials claimed they were unaware of the trial date despite four prosecution witnesses being ready to testify.<\/p>\n
HURIWA recalled that the defendants were earlier arraigned on January 21, 2026, with trial dates scheduled for February 9, 10 and 12. In response to the development, Justice Mohammed Idris adjourned the matter to tomorrow and urged witnesses to remain available in the interest of justice. He also ordered that a hearing notice be issued to the Kuje Correctional Services to ensure the defendants are produced in court.<\/p>\n
HURIWA recalled that this specific matter relates to a violent robbery that occurred on September 29, 2025, at Unique Apartments in Katampe Extension, Abuja, during which Maduagwu, another victim identified as Danlami, and a security guard were killed.<\/p>\n
The eleven accused \u2014 Shamsu Hassan, Sani Sirajo, Hassan Isah, Abubakar Alkamu, Abdulsalam Saleh, Suleiman Badamasi, Zaharadeen Mohammed, Musa Umar (alias \u201cSmall\u201d), Mashkur Jamil, Suleiman Sani and Abubakar Usman \u2014 are facing a nine-count charge bordering on conspiracy, armed robbery and murder.<\/p>\n
HURIWA has also called on the hierarchies of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, the Nigerian Bar Association to send observers to attend the proceedings of the trial of the suspects given that the victim was both a lawyer and a journalist before her life was terminated by the activities of the notorious armed robbers that invaded her home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By George Mgbeleke Even as the trial of eleven persons accused of killing ARISE News journalist, Somtochukwu Maduagwu, was stalled on Tuesday at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory due to the absence of the defendants in court, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) through the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3103,501,3937],"class_list":["post-10984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-decisive","tag-excellent","tag-professionally"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10984"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10987,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10984\/revisions\/10987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}