The Magistrate Courts in Ondo State have rejected all the criminal cases forwarded to them by the state’s Police Command over the withdrawal of prosecutors attached to the courts by the legal section of the Command.
There has been tension between the Police Command and the magistrates over the withdrawal of prosecutors from the lower court by the Officer in Charge of the Legal Department of the force, Mr Theophilus Oteme.
Personnel in the legal section are mostly lawyers who represent the Police in all legal matters in courts. There are other policemen who are not legally trained; they prosecute criminal cases at the various Magistrates Courts across the state.
Sources said Oteme, a Superintendent of Police, withdrew all police prosecutors attached to the courts leaving the courts without prosecuting counsels or prosecutors.
A lawyer told press that the withdrawal took effect from October 17 when the Police Command through the O/C Legal, without any reasonable reason or reasons removed over 24 police regular Prosecutors from different Magistrates’ Courts within the state.
As a result of this act, the source said the courts could not sit throughout the state leaving suspects in criminal cases in Police or correctional custodies without any date for the trial of their cases.
