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 sent 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 to kidnap
Salaam, who was
returning from her shop in her
Honda Accord car with
number plate 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 to
adopt a trial within
trial to authenticate the
confessional statements.