Justice Olasumbo Goodluck of an FCT High Court, Maitama, Abuja, on Tuesday, discharged a former senator, Dino Melaye, who was accused of providing false information to the police.
The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, charged Melaye, Melaye with two counts of giving false information to the police.
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Delivering a ruling in a no-case -submission filed by Melaye, the judge held that on count one, there is no evidence that the defendant gave false information to any person in public service.
She also described the evidence given by Police Witness 1 (Onoja) as “vague.”
The judge said:
Neither of the two witnesses elicited evidence on the status of Mohammed Abubaker Audu.
Hence, there is lack of evidence on the nature of the status of employment or if at all he is employed not to talk of him being engaged in public service.
I am also inclined to allude to the submissions of the defence counsel that there is no statement before the court allegedly made by the defendant to one who is in the public service.
This being the case, the first ingredients of the offence upon which count one is predicated has not been proved to the court.
Similarly, the second element of the count has not been proven by the prosecution.
The judge held that the prosecution failed to present the audio recording of the conversation between Melaye and Audu, nor was an audio expert engaged to the ascertain the identities of the persons in a phone conversation.
The judge also held that no investigative police officer was called to prove that indeed a report was lodged against the defendant.
It is no longer uncertain that a court does not rely on speculations and suspicions from any material evidence.
No audio recording of the telephone conversation between the defendant and Mohammed Abubakar was presented at trial.
All we are left with is the hearsay evidence of the existence of the statement as recounted by the witnesses.
