Court acquits 3 armed robbery suspects after four years behind bars

An Ekiti State High Court in Ado Ekiti has discharged and acquitted three persons Ganiyu Rosak (22) Oluwole Idowu (22 and Ojo Ayomide (20) who were arraigned before Justice Adekunle Adeleye for alleged armed robbery and unlawful possession of firearms.

The charge claimed the defendants on had on the 5th of July 2018, around the Ajebamidele area of Ado Ekiti, while armed with offensive weapons did rob one Adedeji Afolabi Akawa of his phone, laptop and cash sum of N90, 000.00.

In his statement to the police, the victim said, I was sleeping in my room that day, around 2:00am, I saw the defendants and one other, (now at large) in my room, they ordered me to kneel, they collected my phone, laptop and a sum of N90,000, I wanted to struggle with them because the money is not mine but for the weapons, in their hands, I could not do so.

One of them held a gun, another one a cutlass while two others held knives, he concluded.

To prove his case the prosecutor, O. Akinlabi intended to call five witnesses but none of them came to court to testify, he thereafter tendered the victim and defendant’s statements as exhibits.

The defendants spoke in their own defence through their counsel Paul Ayantoyinbo from Ekiti State Office of the Legal Aid Council, and in their quest to prove their innocence, they called five witnesses.

Delivering his judgment, Justice Adekunle Adeleye said, the evidence available before the court does not reveal the ownership or possession of a gun or cutlass by any of the defendants.

On the whole, there is no direct evidence linking the First, second and third defendants to the commission of armed robbery on 5th July 2018.

‘’For failure on the part of the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, the ingredients of the offences of armed robbery and unlawful possession of firearms preferred against the defendants, the first, second and third defendants are hereby discharged and acquitted.‘’