A Gombe State High Court on Wednesday struck out an alleged Defamation of character suit filed by former Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Gombe LGA, Khalid Muazu Izala.
The Court upheld a no-case submission appeal over the alleged criminal defamation of character.
In a unanimous judgement, a two-member panel of the High court led by Justice Haruna Habila Kerengs held that the prosecution failed to establish any defamatory case against the defendant.
It could be recalled that, Izala was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Court 5 in Gombe by policemen from Lowcost Division on September 2, 2020.
He was arraigned based on a complaint filed by an APC chieftain, Garba Mohammed Mairago, who accused Izala of using his Facebook page sometime in 2019 to write defamatory statements against him and some members of the APC in the state.
He was also accused of critising the policies and programmes of Governor Yahaya’s administration.
He was remanded in Gombe correctional facility and later granted bail by Chief Magistrate Bello Sheriff of Chief Magistrate’s Court 5 Pantami, after spending about three weeks.
However, in the course of proceedings at the lower court, the prosecution called two witnesses and tendered 14 documents as evidence and closed its case, while the defendant filed a no- case-submission.
Ruling in the no-case submission, the trial judge, Bello Sheriff, struck out the no-case submission of the defendants, insisting that the defendant has case to answer.
Not satisfied by the decision, the defendant approached the High Courtthrough his counsel, Benjamin Sati, seeking for an order to set aside the ruling of the Magistrate Court.
The appellate court ruled that the lower court judge made “a great and grave error when he established a defamatory case against the appellant defendant.”
The Judges ruled that, “We have gone through the proceeding records and found that the evidences brought by the prosecution against the defendant are lacking in merit, the appeal is hereby granted and the Judgment of the lower court quashed”.
