The appellants were the defendants in the High Court of Lagos State and the respondents the plaintiffs to 13 the suit claiming:The Appellant was arraigned before the Anambra State High Court, Eguata-Ekwulobia on 30/6/1997 on a 6-count charge of malicious damage, rioting, stealing and riotous demolition of property. According to the Appellant, that after the commencement of the trial by Ezeari J, he was transferred out of the judicial division in 1999, which caused the Respondent to become lackadaisical towards prosecuting the matter thereby causing the Appellant to witness incessant transfer of the Judges assigned to hear the matter which took over 20 years without the matter being properly commenced

Consequently, the Appellant with others applied vide a motion dated 8/3/2016 for an order quashing/dismissing all the charges against him/them and discharging him/them.

The Respondent's case however is that since the arraignment of the Appellant on 14/6/1999, the Appellant and his co-accused persons used all kinds of techniques including consistent absences from the criminal proceedings to frustrate the speedy trial and determination of the 6-count charge against them. The Respondent emphasized that the Appellant failed to appear for trial in over 40 occasions and requested for adjournments for over 15 times. In fact, that the trial Court at some occasion issued bench warrant against one or more of the accused persons, who during the pendency of the bench warrant committed same offences against the complainants on 18/5/2013.

The Ruling of the trial Court disfavoured the Appellant, who appealed to the lower Court. Having considered the appeal, the lower Court also dismissed the appeal, hence this current appeal.