The 38 year old taxi driver and father of two, was convicted along with some notorious robbers for allegedly killing and dumping into the river, a man in Kontagora after carting away his possession.
Narrating his ordeal to our correspondent yesterday in Minna, Umar said all efforts to get his release earlier failed, adding that he was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment both at the magistrate and Appeal Courts.
He disclosed that it took the intervention of a Non Governmental Organization, (NGO), called, “Victims of Persecution”, to actualise his release and affirm his innocence, adding that it took the rights body six years to do so.
Speaking on behalf of the NGO, Barrister Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume, stated that when they looked into Umar’s case in 2002, they thought he was a victim of circumstance from the content of the entire case file.
“For someone to really suffer for the consequences of a crime committed, the person must be given sufficient interpretations on the extent of crime commited. So we had to go to the Supreme Court when we discovered that the Appeal Court was pre-judicial on his case”, he said.
Umar finally regained his freedom at about 4pm yesterday amidst farewell screams from inmates of the Minna central prison to re-unite with his family.
