AS BOYS BAG 41 YEARS IMPRISONMENT
Admin l Tuesday, September 18, 2018
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo sitting at an Ikeja Special Offences Court, Lagos on Monday sentenced two men: Kelvin Emenike Ukoh (32) and Emeka Obasi (41) years in prison for kidnapping and armed robbery. They were convicted for the kidnap of one Mr Ugoje Jude, a shipping agent and his staff, Miss Piriye Gogo on August 3, 2012 at about 9pm. They were arraigned alongside three others: Uche Igbani, 28, Chibuzor Osuagwu, 33 and a 36-year-old woman, Onowu Ngozi, on a 14 count-charge of conspiracy, kidnapping, armed robbery and murder.
The two had in their confessional statement with the police alleged that Chukwudimeme Onwuamadike aka Evans was their leader. Prosecuting Counsel, Mrs K. O Sarumi told the court that the convicts abducted the victims at gunpoint, at Alakija while they were driving home in a Honda Pilot car and took them to an unidentified location.
However, narrating her ordeal, Miss Gogo had earlier told the court that three men accosted them with rifles on their way home and was almost raped inside the car, but was saved by her monthly menstrual period which was flowing at the time.
Gogo, during her evidence-in-chief, said that during the abduction, one of the kidnappers, Obasi, came into the car, after dragging her boss out for negotiation at an undisclosed location, and started fondling her breast.
She said, “He came into the car, tore my clothes, pulled down a side of my bra and began caressing my breast. He thereafter started dragging down my shirt and I began begging him. I begged him until I had nothing else I could plead with. I begged him intensely for mercy and even told him that I was menstruating.
“It was as though all pleas fell on deaf ears, I had to insert my hand into my vagina just to show him. The blood I showed him prevented him from raping me. It was a terrible experience.
“After that, he asked if I understand Igbo language and the tribe we come from. We replied by saying Isoko and Ijaw respectively. He thereafter asked whether Mr Jude was the owner of the company. And I replied that we were just clearing agents. They also seized our mobile phones, jewelries and monies.
“They blindfolded Mr Jude, brought him back into the car, asked me to face down with my eyes closed, and then drove off to another location. They spoke igbo almost all the time so I could barely understand what they were saying or taking us to.
“While driving off to the other location, they asked if I could drive, I said no. So they dropped down from the car and took Mr Jude with them. They ordered me to face down and not look at their faces or I will be shot dead. They abandoned me and the Honda pilot car at 2nd alongside Expressway, where I waited until I saw a police patrol and flagged them.
“I narrated what happened to them and the immediately radioed Festac Police station,” she said.
Mr Jude, who also testified before the court, said that his abductors initially ordered him to pay N10m for his release but after much negotiations, they collected N5m.
However, Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo convicted and sentenced Ukoh and Obasi to 5, 15 and 21 years for conspiracy, kidnapping and armed robbery respectively, while the other three were discharged and acquitted.
Justice Taiwo said that the prosecution could not prove beyond reasonable doubt the nexus linking the other three: Igbani, Osuagwu, Ngozi to the alleged charges of murder, conspiracy, Kidnapping and armed robbery. The judge also noted that the prosecution could not present any evidence of murder as charged against all the defendants, aside their confessional statements.
While Igbani and Osuagwu claimed they were arrested on their way to work, Ngozi said that Udoh, her brother’s friend, brought police to her house to arrest her brother, who was at large but now deceased. Ngozi claimed that when the police couldn’t find her brother, she was arrested instead.
