Court strikes out suit against journalist

The Magistrate Court 1 sitting in Kaduna has dismissed the suit filed by Kaduna State Commissioner of Police against the Bureau Chief of Leadership newspaper, Midat Joseph.

The presiding magistrate, Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Yusuf, struck out the suit for lack of diligent prosecution after the prosecutors failed to appear in court for the first and second time.

The judge discharged and acquitted Midat and one other of the offence they were being accused of.

Joseph was arrested on April 19, 2017 and detained by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Nigerian Police force and later released on bail by the same court after spending two nights in detention. Midat had been arrested over a comment on a Whatsapp platform group chat where he had contributed to a conversation.

The First Information Report (FIR) said Midat and one other were charged for criminal conspiracy, inciting disturbance and injurious falsehood.