Pastor Ezekiel has won round two against the State days after getting his TV waves back on air.
A magistrate court has ruled in favour of Pastor Ezekiel Odero in yet another tough legal war with the state.
The ruling was delivered by Senior Principal magistrate JM of the Shanzu law courts now gives Ezekiel some temporary freedom as the state continue to investigate his case.
“The final orders in the ruling that I rendered on 2nd May, 2023 were clear that the purpose of today’s mention was for the State to appraise the court on the status of the investigations and for parties to apply for any other or further relevant/desired/appropriate orders.
An objection has now been raised targeted at the further affidavit filed today by the State and the Respondent’s Counsel seek that the same be expunged from the record,” said the magistrate.
The magistrate added that, “By practice, applications made to a court handling criminal cases are presented either orally or by way of Notice of Motion.
This is a practice that has been adopted in our jurisdiction over a substantive period of time,” said the magistrate.The court added that, “ That being so, and following the orders of 2nd May, 2023 giving leeway to the parties to apply, it is within the rights of the State to prefer their application orally and base the same on affidavit evidence. There are hordes of decisions from superior courts that the title of an affidavit (in this case titled as “Further Affidavit”) is a matter of form and not substance. The substance is to be found in the dispositions made in the paragraphs where the Deponent states his material on oath.It is therefore my persuasion that although the affidavit is titled as “Further Affidavit”, the state can still rely on it to support an oral application,” said that magistrate.“I however need to be clear that a decision on the application dated 28th April, 2023 was made and I trust that parties will not revisit issues already determined therein, which would otherwise be rendered res judicata. The upshot then is that the objection by the Respondent fails,” ruled the court.
Ezekiel is being represented by lawyer Danstan Omari in most of his cases.
