The Ebonyi State Government on Monday discontinued the trial of no fewer than 180 defendants, who had been in prison detention for four years, in the Effium and Ezza-Effium communal clash standing trial at Abakaliki Magistrates Courts.
Dr. Ben Odoh, Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, made the demand in a letter he sent to the courts on Monday.
Odoh urged the courts to discharge and acquit the defendants because the state was no longer interested in the case.
Chief Magistrates Ojemba Isu-Oko of Court 1 and Linds Ogodo of Court 2 in their rulings discharged and acquitted the defendants.
The defendants, who were charged four years ago, had been in remand at the Ebonyi Correctional Centre.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that the defendants are mainly members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers in Effium Motor Park.
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Some of the members were said to have come from Effium, while others were from Ezra-Effium in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of the state.
Fighting started among the defendants, who were said to be in two factions, over which faction controls the park.
The fight later degenerated into a communal clash between Effium and Ezz-Effium communities, in which lives were lost and property destroyed.
Worried by the continued remand of the defendants, the two communities, sometime in 2024, signed a peace pact to end the fighting.
A delegation of the communities presented the peace pact to the state government, which prompted it to discontinue the prosecution of the defendants.
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