Police arraign lawmaker on criminal charges

The police in Zamfara on Friday filed criminal charges against Sen. Yarima Bakura and 29 others at a Zamfara High Court over alleged conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the police took the men to the Zamfara High Cour in Gusau on alleged conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

Counsel to the police, Mr Oloye Torugbene, sought the leave of the court to hear the case, pursuant to the Criminal Procedure, to prosecute the case.

He told the court that all relevant documents, including affidavits, exhibits, names and addresses of accused persons, as well as written statements of witnesses and the accused persons, had been submitted to the court.

He therefore urged the court to proffer a criminal charge based on the evidence provided for prosecution.

He said already, the accused persons who had been served arraignment notice, were released through police administrative bail and pleaded with the court to fix a date for hearing.

In her ruling on the application, the judge, who is also the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Kulu Aliyu, said the court was competent to handle the case.

Aliyu urged the prosecutor to serve the accused persons with all the relevant documents and fixed Jan. 13, 2014 for hearing.

NAN recalled that Rep. Ibrahim Shehu, representing Gusau/Tsafe constituency, had in June alleged that some people mobilised some thugs to kill him.

He alleged that during the incident, the attackers removed large sum of money from his vehicle.

He, however, reported the case to the Inspector-General of Police, who set up an investigation that led to the court case.