The Federal High Court Lagos waived a summons on a journalist with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) yesterday.
The journalist was summoned following an application by the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The court vacated the warrant in the trial of Chukwunonye Madubuike, following an application by NAFDAC prosecutor, Mr Washington Adume.
The defendant was charged with dealing in unwholesome products.
He was re-arraigned on March 14, 2019, before Justice Maureen Onyetenu on a one-count charge of selling Emzolyn with codeine cough syrup.
He had argued not guilty to the charge and was granted bail.
In 2018, the production and importation of cough syrup containing codeine were banned after a BBC undercover investigation.
The BBC investigation “sweet sweet codeine” by a reporter, Mr Adejuwon Soyinka, showed the syrup was sold in the black market to be used by young Nigerians to “get high”.
A joint probe by the BBC’s investigation unit, Africa Eye, and BBC Pidgin prompted the ban.
Consequently, NAFDAC arraigned the defendant in 2018 before Justice Babs Kuewumi, who had been transferred to the Ado-Ekiti division of the court.
The defendant had pleaded not guilty before both Justice Kuewumi and Onyetenu.
In 2019, Justice Onyetenu granted the issuance of a subpoena to compel the BBC journalist to come and testify in court.
Lawyers to the BBC reporter had filed a motion, seeking to dismiss the “subpoena duces tecum ad testificandum” (commanding or ordering a person to appear and bring specified documents or records and to give testimony), issued on Soyinka.
In the motion, they had averred that the reporter was entitled to freedom of expression and also had the right not to disclose sources of information used in reports.
Onyetenu was again transferred out of the Lagos jurisdiction and the defendant was re-arraigned before a new judge, Justice Akintayo Aluko.
When the case was called yesterday, the prosecutor urged the court to vacate the subpoena issued by the previous judge on the reporter.
Adume argued that when the case was charged to court, the reporter was invited to come and testify but he refused and proved hostile, despite the issuance of a subpoena.
He urged the court to vacate the said subpoena to make progress in the trial.
The court, consequently, granted the application and vacated the subpoena.
He adjourned the case until July 13 for the continuation of trial.
