Nineteen persons accused of being members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and held in detention for 15 years, have been discharged and acquitted by Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court, Awka, Anambra State Capital.

The nineteen persons shed tears of joy after the court acquitted them of treason and terrorism charges and ordered their release after 15 years in detention.

One of those released, Casmir Odorka, expressed gratitude to God for eventually setting him free after 15 years of being held in detention for a crime he never committed.

One of the acquitted persons who couldn’t contain his joy after regaining his freedom fifteen years after his arrest said:

”I am a business man. I have two stores and I left them unlocked. They picked me up and took me to the police station. I told my neighbours that I would be coming back in the next one hour. This is the next one hour. 15 years. I left my shop unlocked. I didn’t know anything. Today I regained my freedom, to God be the glory. None of us died. I give God the glory.”

The trial judge said the prosecutors failed to establish proof for treason and terrorism charges levelled against the nineteen accused persons.

Counsel to the acquitted persons, Okoli Akirika, said: “The judgement to the conclusion that there was no iota or scintilla or modicum of evidence adduced by the prosecution against the defendants. It took more than fourteen years to come to this conclusion and this brings to the fore one of the defects in our criminal justice system. This is a case in which people wasted their youthful years.”