COURT REMANDS TWO FRIENDS FOR KILLING ANOTHER OVER BAGS OF RICE

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Two friends, Noah Tovohome and Rajay Zannu, were placed under detention in a correctional facility by a Lagos State magistrate’s court located in the Yaba neighbourhood. They were accused of conspiring to assassinate their friend Segun Zusu by stealing 36 bags of rice.

On Tuesday, the two were brought before Magistrate Linda Balogun on two charges that had the potential for murder.

The defendants, Tovohome and Zannu, allegedly planned to murder Zusu and take the rice bags from Seme by working with a boat driver who was transporting Zusu’s cargo. This information was presented in court.

But that day, at around two in the morning, they stopped the boat at the Novo River in Seme, beat Zusu unconscious with a plank, and threw him into the river. They then transported the rice sacks to Badagry, where they were purchased by a businesswoman for roughly N1.4 million, and they split the proceeds.

According to Chekwube Okeh, the police prosecutor, the defendants committed the crime on November 12, 2023, as she informed the court.

According to Okeh, the crime is punishable under Section 223 of the Lagos State 2015 Criminal Law and violates Section 222.

The charges read in part, “That you, Noah Tovohome, 27, Rajay Zannu, 38 and others at large, on November 12, 2023, around 2 am, at Novo River, Seme, Lagos State, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did unlawfully kill one 26-year-old Segun Zusu, by hitting a plank on his head and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 222 and punishable under Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.”

The defendants’ pleas were not accepted.

In order to await the conclusion of legal counsel from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions office, Okeh begged the court to confine them to a jail facility.

The defendant was remanded to the Kirikiri Correctional Centre while Magistrate Balogun heard the prayer and made the decision to await the DPP’s legal advice.

In order to await the DPP’s guidance, Balogun also postponed the case to January 22, 2024.