Nineteen persons accused of being members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and held in detention for 15 years, has been discharged and acquitted by Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court sitting in Awka, Anambra State Capital.
The nineteen persons shed tears of joy after the court acquitted them of treason and terrorism charges and ordered their release after 15 years in detention.
The trial judge said the prosecutors failed to establish proof for treason and terrorism charges levelled against the nineteen accused persons.
Counsel to the acquitted persons, Okoli Akirika, said: “The judgement to the conclusion that there was no iota or scintilla of evidence adduced by the prosecution against the defendants. It took more than fourteen years to come to this conclusion and this brings to the fore one of the defects in our criminal justice system. This is a case in which people wasted their youthful years.”
MASSOB is another secessionist group agitating the creation of the Biafra nation.