A Plateau High Court on Tuesday ordered a dismissed policeman, Auta Aruwa, to open his defence on Sept. 19.
Aruwa is charged with the murder of a 300 Level student of University of Jos, Peter Rinji-Bala.
Justice David Mann, gave the order after Garba Pwul, The Prosecution Counsel, on behalf of the Plateau Government closed his case.
Justice Mann fixed Sept 19 and Sept 20 for the accused person to defend himself from the allegations following an application for adjournment raised by the defence counsel, Mr Emmanuel Madaki.
Madaki, in his application for adjournment, pleaded with the court for an adjournment to enable him prepare well for the defence.
“My Lord, with the prosecution closing their case today, I wish to humbly apply for ample time to enable us adequately prepare for the opening of our defence.
“So far we have five witnesses to take. We believe that when we return on the next adjourned date, it won’t take us more than two weeks to complete our defence,” he assured.
Pwul, however, did not oppose the application for adjournment but said, “we are ready to hear them as it’s their Constitutional right to be heard.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the prosecution alleged that Aruwa, shot and killed Peter on May 12, 2020 in company of his friends, who were earlier arrested and released by personnel of Operations Save Haven (OPSH) for alleged violation of the COVID-19 lockdown in Jos.
Earlier, the seventh prosecution Witness (PW7), Insp Martha Bwodang, from the Plateau Criminal Investigation Department (CID), told the court that she was part on the team that investigated the alleged murder case of the UniJos student.
She said that the defendant admitted that he shot at Peter and his other four friends.
Bwodang further told the court that the defendant used one bullet out of the 30 given to him.
She admitted that she failed to state the number of the AK47 riffle the defendant used in committing the crime. (NAN)