It took 22 years for Alban Ajaegbu to be let off the hook for a crime he did not commit. He has been in custody, stood trial and was sentenced to death in 1996.
That was the verdict of the Supreme Court yesterday exonerating him from complicity in the murder of the groundnut seller in Owerri, discharging and acquitting him!
Alban Ajaegbu was a gardener in the hotel owned by Vincent Duru alias Otokoto. Following the murder of a groundnut seller, he was amongst the Defendants that stood trial and were all convicted by Justice Nwosu Iheme JCA (then a Judge of IMO State Judiciary).
The Defendants were six in number. Following their convictions, they appealed to the Court of Appeal in Owerri.
The panel that heard the appeal comprising Professor Owoade, Tsammani JJCA acquitted 3 of the convicts. Amongst those acquitted was the Manager of the Hotel. The Court of Appeal held there was no sufficient evidence linking them to the murder.
The unsuccessful three comprised Otokoto, Alban Ajaegbu and another. Vincent Duru has had his appeal dismissed by the apex court. Alban Ajaegbu has now been acquitted.
So as it stands amongst the six defendants found guilty by the trial court only one person has had his appeal dismissed at the apex court. One is still outstanding while the last of the three has been acquitted! So only one by exhaustion of appeals is really the culprit!!!
The painful aspects of this is the time it took for the convicts to be acquitted. Spending up to two decades in jail before being found innocent, the losses that cannot be quantified suffered in the time in custody.
Then there are the unanswered questions : Was the conviction based on emotions? Did both the Trial Judge and his brothers at appeal not appreciate the arguments made before them? Were the wrong arguments made in both the trial and appellate courts? Why must it take a final appeal to reveal an anomaly that four Judges did not see, one at trial court, three at the Court of Appeal, then another five unearthing it at the Supreme Court?
Will Mr. Ajaegbu ever be compensated for the hell he went through? Then these most important poser : With incidences like this, will it be fair terminating any appeal at the Court of Appeal? Assuming the appeal was restricted to the Court of Appeal, Ajaegbu will book a date with the hangman for a crime he did not commit!!!
Can we really guarantee that the Appeals terminating in the Court of Appeal in some matters would not have been set aside if it got to the Supreme Court?
A pointer to this possibility is the Governorship election petitions. Before now it terminated at the Court of Appeal. Now there is a final appeal to the Supreme Court. Governors Wike and Okezie Ikpeazu had their fate saved by the Supreme Court.
The Court of Appeal dismissed their appeals. Imagine if there is no final appeal to the Supreme Court? Why does it take these long for appeals to get resolved? Many things to think about!!!
