A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has discharged and acquitted Inspector Atausen Luke, who was standing trial for the alleged kidnapping of one Thomas Odion in Oyigbo Local Government Area in May 2023.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, the presiding judge, Justice I. Wodi, held that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Justice Wodi noted that there was no eyewitness testimony or material evidence directly linking the defendant to the alleged crime.
The court further observed that the mobile phone reportedly recovered at the crime scene, which was central to the prosecution’s case, was neither tendered in evidence nor sighted by the prosecuting team during the trial.
Inspector Luke, who was reportedly serving as an orderly to the former Chairman of Andoni Local Government Area at the time of the incident, was arrested after his mobile phone was allegedly found at the scene of the kidnapping.
Daily Post reports that the prosecution counsel declined to comment on the judgment.
Counsel to the defendant, Obediah Charles Mbaba, spoke briefly to journalists after the court session.
Mbaba said his client was discharged and acquitted.
He noted that no eyewitness appeared in court to speak against his client.
Mbaba, however, said, “The Nigerian Police that ought to do due diligence in the course of investigation did a very shabby investigation, particularly as it concerns that said defendant who was an Inspector of Police at the time the said allegation was raised by whoever.
“Today, the court has shown that he is innocent of the allegation of kidnapping.
“But the question now is, how can a man who was accused innocently be compensated, particularly that he was a police officer, and the same police could not even be diligent even in the case of their own officer? How much more when it concerns the ordinary citizens of this country?
“We are grateful to God.”
Speaking about the future of his client, who he said was discharged from the Nigerian Police due to the said allegation of kidnapping, Mbaba stated that following Luke’s acquittal by the court, the Nigerian Police does not need a court order to allow him to return to work.
He said, “We shall write to the police, informing them of the judgment and wait for the action of the IG or the Commissioner of Police.”
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