Court rejects Mohbad’s father’s suit challenging DPP’s legal advice to free Naira Marley, Sam Larry and others

The application by late Mohbad’s father, Mr. Joseph Aloba, to overturn the DPP’s legal counsel and the ensuing court proceedings that released Naira Marley, Sam Larry, and a few others on suspicion of being involved in Mohbad’s death was denied by the Lagos High Court in Ikeja. According to Channels TV, Justice Taiwo Olatokun ruled on Wednesday that the Attorney General’s authority to decide whether to prosecute was legitimately used. Justice Olatokun further ruled that the reliefs requested by the late Mohbad’s father could not be granted because the Attorney General’s (acting through the DPP) authority could not be questioned. The court dismissed the application. The ruling, however, did not satisfy Mr. Joseph Aloba, who was in court today with a few other supporters of the late Mohbad. The DPP’s attorney chose not to comment on the ruling, but Wahab Shittu, the applicant’s attorney and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, stated that his client was prepared to challenge the ruling in an appeal. The suit was filed by the applicant, Mr. Joseph Aloba, on behalf of the Aloba family, and the respondents were the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the Attorney General of Lagos State. One of the grounds for the application, according to the applicant’s attorney Shittu, was a lack of a fair hearing. Mr Aloba had said the DPPs legal advice freeing the duo of Naira Marley and Sam Larry pre-empted the proceedings of the Coroners inquest, which had yet to conclude its enquiry into the cause of death of the late Mohbad. He noted that vital suspects mentioned and implicated in the Coroners proceeding had been freed by the DPPs legal advice. In their counter affidavit filed June 24, a legal assistant in the office of the DPP, Ayinde Ibrahim, deposed that contrary to the submission of Mohbads father, the suspects who were released by the legal advice were not acquitted but were only discharged. While asking the court to dismiss Mr Mohbads application in the interest of justice, the respondents traced the process of obtaining the DPPs legal advice, the role of the DPP, the kind of information notably the criminal case file, which the DPP and neither the coroner nor the applicant had access to. They also concluded that there was no fact disclosed that linked Naira Marley, Sam Larry, Prime Boy, and Opere Babatunde directly or remotely to the death of Mohbad, a situation that formed the basis of the DPPs advice freeing them.  The post Court rejects Mohbad’s father’s suit challenging DPP’s legal advice to free Naira Marley, Sam Larry and others appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.

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