Justice Taiwo Olatokun of a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has dismissed the application filed by Joseph Aloba, the father of late singer, Ilerioluwa Aloba, popularly known as Mohbad, seeking to quash the legal advice and court proceedings that freed music label owner, Naira Marley, and promoter, Sam Larry, from any involvement in the singer’s death.
Justice Olatokun, while dismissing Aloba’s application on Wednesday, held that the powers of the Attorney General of Lagos State to prosecute or not to prosecute are absolute and cannot be questioned.
Aloba had filed the application on behalf of the family through his counsel, Dr Wahab Shittu (SAN), against the Attorney General of Lagos State and the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), who were listed as the respondents in the suit.
Shittu had cited a lack of fair hearing as one of the grounds for the application, noting that the DPP’s legal advice freeing Naira Marley and Sam Larry pre-empted the proceedings of the coroner’s inquest, which is yet to conclude its inquiry into the cause of Mohbad’s death.
He noted that vital suspects mentioned and implicated in the coroner’s proceeding have been freed by the DPP’s legal advice.
However, the respondents in the counter affidavit contended that the suspects who were released following legal advice were not acquitted, but were merely discharged.
Respondent therefore prayed the court to dismiss the application in the interest of justice, adding that at no time did the coroner hearing the inquest issue any directive that mandated the respondents to inform it of the conclusion of the DPP’s review of the duplicate case file, which is the conclusion captured in the legal advice sought to be quashed by the applicant.
The second respondent was not instructed to halt its mandatory statutory review of the casefile nor ordered by the first respondent, or the presiding coroner or the chief coroner for Lagos State to inform the honourable presiding coroner whenever it was ready to issue the legal advice.
The respondents said that the Police investigators and the respondents working on a prima facie criminal inference of the death of the deceased are independent of the presiding coroner.
The respondents are answerable only to the Presiding Magistrate who ordered the remand pending the issuance of the legal advice and to whom the legal advice was forwarded when it was issued.
However, the judge while delivering judgement held that the Powers of the Attorney General of Lagos State to prosecute or not to prosecute are absolute and cannot be questioned.
After the judgment, Shittu stated that the family will proceed to appeal the decision, as their aim is not to indict anyone but to uphold justice.
