Kano State Government on Thursday said it can’t arraign before a court of law the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Doguwa, because there was no evidence to do that.
The State’s Attorney General, and Commissioner for Justice, Musa Lawan, told reporters that the government is dropping the murder charge against the lawmaker. He said his office cannot substantiate charges of criminal conspiracy, mischief by fire, and culpable homicide levelled against Mr Doguwa.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how the police in Kano charged Mr Doguwa with murder for allegedly killing three people during the 25 February election.
The lawmaker was allegedly involved in a violent confrontation between members of the New Nigeria People Party (NNPP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) that led to the killing of three people and the burning of a campaign office of the opposition party in the Tudun Wada Local Government.
The police on Friday submitted a report of its investigation of the incident to the Kano State government for review and possible prosecution of Mr Doguwa and 14 others.
The Kano government said it can only prosecute five suspects arrested alongside Mr Doguwa for alleged arson of the NNPP’s office in the Tudun Wada Local Government Area after they confessed that they committed the offence.
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“Based on the contradicted witnesses received, those that indicted were full of contradictions while others exonerated him (Mr Doguwa) according to the police investigation report submitted to the Kano State government.
“After scrutiny, we cannot establish a murder charge against Alhassan Ado Doguwa and other accomplices including the police officers whose ammunition was intact after the incident.
“By law, if you have a contradiction in evidence against a suspect, you can pick the one that exonerates him against the ones that have contradictions, this made us to arrived that we cannot charge them in court.
“Only five suspects who have confessed to having burned the NNPP office will be court charged,” Mr Lawan said.
Mr Lawan said that apart from the contradictory comments, there was no medical evidence to prove that Mr Doguwa caused the death of the deceased persons.
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