Justice Afamefuna Nwobodo of Enugu State High Court, on Tuesday discharged and acquitted Onyeka Okpala of robbery charge for lack of diligent prosecution.
Nwobodo struck out the case and discharged the accused for lack of diligent prosecution.
The prosecutor, Mrs J.E. Enyeagha, had told the court that the matter slated for hearing could not go on because the witnesses were again not in court.
Enyeagha said that her efforts to assemble the witnesses had been unsuccessful.
Counsel to the accused, Mrs Ifeoma Okereke, told the court that the person in the dock was not the accused.
Okereke drew the attention of the court to the charge sheet, which stated that Osuji Alberto was robbed of his Blackberry phone and a sum of N300, 000 by two men in a tricycle.
She told the court that the person in the dock was a woman and not two men as claimed by the prosecution in the charge sheet before the court.
According to her, Alberto was allegedly robbed of the items at St Mary Church Trans-Ekulu, Enugu, in September, 2011.
“It is also on record that the incident involved two men in a tricycle along the said avenue and not a woman or women.
“My client has no business with any blackberry phone and beside she has been coming to court from Lagos, all this while.
“It is unfortunate that this young woman, who is a graduate of Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu (IMT), is now suffering what she does not know about.
“My lord, I plead that the court should strike out this case for lack of diligent prosecution pending when the prosecution is ready to prosecute the case,” she pleaded.
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