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111 cn1u11
oerore the court having met the requirements of the law as
;nvisag~d by sec ion 146 of the ACJL 201Q is competent and I sci hold. ·
._,,Again o~ the su mission that that there · is no official indication that
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the sai9 counsel U. V. Ekwerekwu i_s in the employ of the office of
Attorney Gener I Ministry of Justice Onitsha Anambra state. The
court's ~ecords o proof of evidence 4nd all the docur111ents filed in this
suit on behalf o the prosecution w·ere all certified by the said u.v
Ekwere~u Esq. enior State Counse'I, using the official stamp of the
Ministry·of Justic . Throughout the proceeding the said U.V Ekwerekwu
Esq . appeared as: Senior State Counsel with R. C Aganamah Onyeze,
S~nior State Cou ~sel for the State . The abundant evidence before the
Court shows oth , rwise . The instant pbjection of the counsel for the
Defendant holds o water and is hereby overruled.
The .Defendant ounsel also argueq that the Defendant was not
properly arraigne and also that section 17 of th~ Administration of
the -.C riminal
Ju tice Act, 2015 wks not complied with by the
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p~osecut!on .
l: •
Thus the SupremiCourt has in the c se of ABD_ULLAHI IBRAHIM VS
Tt-lE STATE 2013 , SCN (PT. I) 145 at 161, considered the elements of
a y al jd plea, prop~r arraignment and how it touches the Jurisdiction of
ihe Court and staied that for a Defendant to be validly arraigned the
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following conditions must be met :9.
"That the accused shall be placed before the Court unf ettered.
b.
The Charge
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was
read over and explained to him
to
the
satisfaction of the Court.
.:
c.' ·
The Charge must be read in the la~guage he understands.
a.~.
The accused shall then be cal/et;/ to plead instantly (unless an
objection in respect of want of servite of a copy of information is
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· successf ully taken)"
$Vil NO. 0/49' /2016: THE STATl VS CHIBUIKE OURU
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Judgment deli-vered on 19/04/2018