Court frees El-Zakzaky, wife

A Kaduna State High Court, yesterday, discharged and acquitted embattled leader of the proscribed Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat.

  The tow people  stood trial over an eight-count charge of culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, disruption of public peace, among other criminal charges since December 2015, following a clash between his followers and the convoy of then Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Yusuf Buratai, in Zaria.

  Delivering an eight-hour ruling, Justice Gideon Kurada upheld the no-case submission with which El-Zakzaky and his wife challenged the charges preferred against them by Kaduna State government, and dismissed each count of the charges.

  Justice Kurada held that the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against the defendants to necessitate their trial.

  It will be recalled that El-Zakzaky and his wife have been standing trial for about four years.