It was judgment day Monday for five persons, who had been standing trial before an Osun State High Court, sitting in Iwo, for kidnapping the wife of the State House of Assembly Speaker, Alhaja Muibat Salaam, as the court sentenced them to a total of 135 years in imprisonment.
Justice Moshood Adeigbe sentenced each of the five accused persons facing a three-count charge of conspiracy, kidnapping and unlawful possession of firearms to 27 years imprisonment.
The convicts are Chukwudi Okereke (40), Ogbole Ochijile Elijah (25), Okonkwo Lucky (33), Kaikine Mahah (35) and Nwadinnor Philip (30).
Immediately the judge pronounced the sentence, the family and friends of the convicts, who had besieged the court with the hope of either a possible freedom or a light sentence for their relatives, burst into tears.
The convicts were said to have conspired while armed with AK 47’s to kidnap Salaam, who was returning from her shop in her Honda Accord car with plate number OSHA02 at about 8pm around Oke-Oyo Road in Ejigbo, Osun State on October 9, 2012.
During their trial, the prosecution led by the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adewale Afolabi, said the convicts had confessed to the kidnapping of the speaker’s wife in their individual statements to the police during investigations.
Delivering his judgment, Justice Adeigbe noted that the prosecution had been able to establish its case against the defendants, stressing that “the confessional statements were clear that the accused persons met at Royal Hotel in Agbor, Delta State, where they planned the kidnap, perfected it in Lagos and carried it out in Ejigbo.”
“The exhibits also showed that the five accused persons kidnapped the PW2 (Mrs. Salaam), forced her into a trailer and dragged her into the bush on their way to Lagos before the Ogun State Police Command arrested them. I hold that the prosecution have established their case and therefore found the five accused persons guilty of conspiracy, kidnapping and unlawful possession of firearms,” he said.
For the charge of conspiracy, Justice Adeigbe sentenced each of the five convicts to seven years imprisonment; 10 years imprisonment for the charge of kidnapping and another 10 years for the charge of unlawful possession of firearms.
He however ruled each term of the sentence should run concurrently since the counts arose out of the charges of the same Act.
Earlier, the defence counsel, Sam George and Fredrick Komolafe, had prayed the court to temper justice with mercy because the accused persons are married men with children.
But Justice Adeigbe ignored the plea, saying the five convicts deserve the full punishment for their offence , which he described as heartless and condemnable.
Komolafe, counsel to Elijah, Lucky and Philip, who spoke after the court proceeding, said they were going to appeal the judgment because his clients were found guilty based on their confessional statements.
He said the confessional statements were not tested, adding that the best option was to adopt a trial within trial to authenticate the confessional statements.
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