The magistrate, Cynthia Ikpe, did not take the defendant’s plea for lack of jurisdiction.
“Governors have introduced a human face to execution matters,’’
Mrs Jack did not take the defendant’s plea, but rather ordered that the case file should be sent to the state director of public prosecutions for advice.
The men allegedly kidnapped the Benue Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Ekpe Ogbu, on December 4, 2022.
The police charged Jiir Godwin with malicious damage, abduction, hostage taking, kidnapping and belonging to a secret cult .
