#Endsars Scare Stops Prisons From Taking Evans, Others To Court

Officials of Kirikiri Maximum Security Correctional Centre on Wednesday failed to produce kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, a.k.a. Evans and his co-defendants before an Ikeja Special Offences Court to answer charges of kidnapping brought against them by the state.

It was gathered the fear of possible attack by those who might want to take advantage of the #EndSARS protests made the officials of the Correctional Center to stay away from all courts in Lagos.

Evans and co-defendants were initially scheduled to appear before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo yesterday in continuation of their trial.

They are facing two separate charges of kidnapping and murder before Justice Taiwo’s court.

The two charges were listed as number 10 and 12 in the court’s cause list for Wednesday.

But neither the prosecution nor the defence came to court.

Enquiry from the court registrar showed that the two cases would not go on as scheduled.

It was learnt that the Correctional Centres had communicated to the court that they would not bring the defendants, citing the unrest in the city occasioned by the widespread #EndSARS protest.

“They are afraid of hijack by protesters,” the court register noted.

When contacted, the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions, Mrs. Adeyinka Adeyemi confirmed the development to The Nation,

The parking space reserved for the ban of the Correctional Centres was empty while the holding cells for keeping inmates on the court premises were empty.

Judicial officials at the holding cells said the NCS had not brought any inmate to court since Monday.

NCS spokesman in Lagos, Rotimi Oladokun, couldn’t react as his mobile phone number was unavailable.