A boy who was charged to court at the age of 11 over the suspected murder of his brother in Dansadau town of Maru Local Government in Zamfara State has spent 7 years in detention awaiting trial, Daily Trust has learnt.
The suspect whose name was given as Garba, was slammed into detention in 2003 after he was accused of hitting his Fulani brother with a stick while the two were herding cattle, causing the latter’s death.

Garba was reportedly arraigned before a juvenile court in Zamfara State, where he was ordered to be kept at the state’s remand home pending the conclusion of the case. Since then the accused, who is now 18, has been languishing in detention.

Daily Trust gathered that even as juvenile offences attract highest punishment of nine months imprisonment at the juvenile detention, no sentence was given yet in the young offender’s case.

However, it was also gathered that during the past administration of former Governor Mahmud Shinkafi, the boy’s case was recommended to the governor, who was said to have promptly granted him state pardon.

Garba was not however allowed freedom even with the governor’s amnesty as some government officials allegedly swapped his name with that of another ‘connected’ juvenile offender and released the impostor in his place.

Confirming the case, the state Commissioner for Social Welfare, Alhaji Sanusi Aliyu Maradun, lamented how the boy spent 7 years in detention, pointing out that he was not supposed to be held for that long due to his age at the time of the alleged crime.

The commissioner described the attitude of the officials who swapped the boy’s pardon as despicable, maintaining that he was briefed of the matter on assuming office recently and promised to take up the case to the state governor with a view to getting another pardon for the teenager

Source: http://www.dailytrust.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26435%3Azamfara-teenager-spends-7-years-awaiting-trial-over-murder-charge&catid=1%3Anews&Itemid=2

I pity d poor boy