{"id":89234,"date":"2021-11-28T15:43:01","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T14:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=89234"},"modified":"2021-11-28T15:43:01","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T14:43:01","slug":"court-acquits-19-men-accused-of-being-massob-members-after-15-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-acquits-19-men-accused-of-being-massob-members-after-15-years-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Acquits 19 Men Accused Of Being MASSOB Members After 15 Years In Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"m21789\" class=\"mail-message expanded\">\n<div class=\"mail-message-header spacer\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nineteen persons accused of being members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and held in detention for 15 years, has been discharged and acquitted by Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court sitting in Awka, Anambra State Capital.<\/div>\n<div class=\"mail-message-content collapsible zoom-normal  \" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div class=\"clear\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">\nThe nineteen persons shed tears of joy after the court acquitted them of treason and terrorism charges and ordered their release after 15 years in detention.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\nOne of those released, Casmir Odorka, expressed gratitude to God for eventually setting him free after 15 years of being held in detention for a crime he never committed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dI give God all the glory for my life. Over fifteen years in prison but today, I am free.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the acquitted persons who couldn\u2019t contain his joy after regaining his freedom fifteen years after his arrest said<\/p>\n<p>\u201dI am a business man. I have two stores and I left them unlocked. They picked me up and took me to the police station. I told my neighbours that I would be coming back in the next one hour. This is the next one hour. 15 years. I left my shop unlocked. I didn\u2019t know anything. Today I regained my freedom, to God be the glory. None of us died. I give God the glory,\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The trial judge said the prosecutors failed to establish proof for treason and terrorism charges levelled against the nineteen accused persons.<\/p>\n<p>Counsel to the acquitted persons, Okoli Akirika, said: \u201cThe judgement to the conclusion that there was no iota or scintilla of evidence adduced by the prosecution against the defendants. It took more than fourteen years to come to this conclusion and this brings to the fore one of the defects in our criminal justice system. This is a case in which people wasted their youthful years.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mail-message-footer spacer collapsible\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nineteen persons accused of being members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and held in detention for 15 years, has been discharged and&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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