EKITI COURT JAILS THREE FOR 97 YEARS OVER KIDNAPPING, ARMED ROBBERY

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By Aishat Momoh. O.

An Ekiti State High Court sitting in Ado Ekiti has sentenced three persons to a combined 97 years’ imprisonment without the option of fine for kidnapping, armed robbery, and unlawful possession of offensive weapons.

The convicts, Augustine Agbogbo, Adeniyi Olamilekan, and Ademoh Gabriel, were handed jail terms of 40, 25, and 32 years respectively by Justice Adeniyi Familoni on Monday.

The court, however, discharged and acquitted three other defendants, Ogungbemi Gbenga, Monday Rakiya, and Oseni Mutairu, after ruling that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against them beyond reasonable doubt.

The six defendants had been arraigned on August 11, 2023, on a six-count charge bordering on conspiracy, kidnapping, armed robbery, and unlawful possession of offensive weapons.

According to the charge, the offences were committed on different dates and locations within Ekiti State. The defendants were accused of robbing Ajibade Adeleke of N15,000 at Ayede on June 6, 2022, and later robbing and kidnapping a retired naval officer, Lt Cdr Victoria Eisape, at Itapaji on December 20, 2022.

They were also accused of kidnapping Adeleke during the same period while armed with guns and cutlasses, as well as unlawfully possessing three long-barrelled guns, 33 live cartridges, and 56 expended cartridges at Iyemero Ekiti on April 6, 2023.

During the trial, Eisape narrated how she and Adeleke were abducted along the Itapaji–Iyemero Road and held captive until a ransom of N70 million was demanded. She said she was eventually released after the payment of N8 million.

The prosecution, led by Albert Adeyemi, called seven witnesses and tendered exhibits including the defendants’ statements, a search warrant, firearms, cartridges, and other recovered items.

The defendants did not call any witnesses in their defence.

In his judgment, Justice Familoni dismissed the defendants’ retraction of their confessional statements as an afterthought and found them guilty on multiple counts.

He ruled that the sentences would run concurrently and take effect from the date of their arrest and remand.