Anambra robbery suspect listed to be freed by CJ dies

There was an atmosphere of despair at the Awka Prisons, Wednesday, when the Chief Judge of Anambra State, Justice Peter Umeadi, was informed that an armed robbery suspect, Mr. Ndubuisi Beluolisa, who was among those whose cases were to be looked into by him, had died in custody after spending six years without trial. Beluolisa was listed among four inmates under the ‘very sick’ category whose cases were to be treated compassionately by the CJ, who has been on jail delivery tour of prisons in Anambra State since last month. When the name of Beluolisa was called to appear for his matter to be considered, the audience was taken aback when the Prison doctor, Dr. Frank Uzor, informed the chief judge that the suspect died November 30, 2016, while in custody. The doctor said: “At a point, Ndubuisi started losing weight and we took him to the Amaku Specialist Hospital, Awka and took samples of his sputum for analysis, but he later died on November 30. We suspect that he died of pulmonary tuberculosis, which he suffered for some time.” According to the records, Beluolisa had, on July 9, 2010, applied for bail through his lawyer, after the state Commissioner of Police forwarded his file to the court, which made the CJ to question why he was kept in detention for further six years after he applied for bail. Surprisingly, Beluolisa’s case file disappeared after his application for bail in 2010, such that he was never taken to court again until his name was listed for the CJ’s intervention. In fact, the anger could be noticed on the face of the chief judge, who consulted other judges around him, apparently to decide what to do, before asking the state Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, to explain what happened to Beluolisa’s file from 2010 to the day he died in 2016. The state Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Mr. Osunkwo, informed the CJ that one T. C. Obuekwe was handling Beluolisa’s file, saying that he did not know the problem that made the case to delay for six years until he died in detention. But Obuekwe was not present to explain what happened. Regretting that nothing happened to effect the bail application for Beluolisa after the police forwarded his case file to the DPP, Justice Umeadi directed that the family of the deceased should be written to inform them of the ugly development. To the CJ, the office of the DPP exhibited a carefree attitude in the handling of Beluolisa’s matter, adding that those charged with the dispensation of justice must ensure that nobody should be denied justice. He also ordered the DPP to do a letter to his office to explain what actually happened since the relevant officers were apportioning blame on the circumstances that led to the detention of the suspect for six years without trial.