Court sentences ex-convict, one other to death for armed robbery

An Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti Division, has sentenced two persons to death by hanging for armed robbery, which include a 35-year-old ex-convict, Dayo Adeniyi who bagged seven years imprisonment for conspiracy.

Penpushing reports that the two defendants were tried and found guilty of robbing Ado Ekiti residents of their valuables, including two vehicles, a laptop computer, phones, bags of rice, yam tubers and cash.

The court, in the judgment passed on Tuesday, equally sentenced 37-year-old Kehinde Adejuwon to seven years imprisonment for conspiracy after been arraigned on February 14, 2023, on five five-count charges bordering on conspiracy, armed robbery and stealing.

Penpushing further reports that the two defendants were tried and found guilty of robbing Ado Ekiti residents of their valuables, including two vehicles, a laptop computer, phones, bags of rice, yam tubers and cash.

The charge read that Adejuwon and Adeniyi, on January 4, 2022 and January 1, 2023, while armed with a gun and a cutlass, conspired to steal N100,000 and a UBA ATM card, properties of one Adeowo Aderonke.

Penpushing also reports that the charge added that the defendants equally robbed one Ojo Adeniyi of his Toyota Highlander Jeep, one bag of rice, five tubers of yam and N156,000, stating that they robbed one Emmanuel Adebajo Gbenga of his Toyota Camry car, laptop computer, six phones and N60,000”.

The charge added that the offences are contrary to Section 302(4)(a), 312(2)(a) and 421 of the criminal Law of Ekiti State, 2021, and that one of  the victims, Emmanuel Adebajo, in his testimony before the court, stated that he was coming  from church with his family when the armed robbers accosted them

“Myself, my wife and our three children were coming from church around 2 am on New Year Day, when we got to the gate of our house and were about to enter, I suddenly saw three persons emanating from nowhere and armed with guns and cutlasses’.

“We were ordered to come down from the car, they snatched the car from me at gunpoint, alongside my laptop, six different phones, a bunch of keys and a sum of N60,000, all valued at N376,000’, the victim added

Penpushing reports that Adebayo, who said that he reported the matter to the police, explained that he later contacted the engineer, who installed a tracker in the car, adding that after a frantic effort, the car was tracked to Offa, Kwara State.

“I later contacted the engineer, who installed a tracker in the car. After a frantic effort, the car was tracked to Offa, Kwara State, alongside the defendants. They were first transferred to Ilorin in the Kwara State Police Command. The policemen contacted the Ekiti State Command and later brought them to Ado Ekiti. The car was released to me’, he said.

Penpushing further reports that the prosecutor, Olasanmi Oluwaseun, called three witnesses and tendered exhibits, while the defendants, who spoke through their lawyer, Lawrence Fasanmi, called no witnesses.

The judge Justice Olalekan Olatawura in his judgement said he noted that in the 2nd defendant’s confessional statement confessed being an ex-convict, adding that one would have thought that after his experience in prison, he ought to have reformed himself

“I note that in the 2nd defendant’s confessional statement, he described himself as an ex-convict. One would have thought that after his experience in prison, he ought to have reformed himself, instead, he stepped up his criminal acts and graduated from being a phone thief to an armed robber’, he said.

“I have given consideration to the plea of the defendants for mercy. Unfortunately, the punishment for the offence of armed robbery is mandatory. I therefore have no discretion to exercise on that’.

“Consequently, on Count One (Conspiracy), the defendants are sentenced to seven years imprisonment each, while on Count Two (Armed Robbery), the sentence of this court is that you be hanged by the neck until you be dead, may God have mercy on your soul,” the judge ruled

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