Murder: Four Bag 2 Years Imprisonment

An Ikeja High Court, Lagos, on Wednesday sentenced four men to two years imprisonment each for killing one Ibrahim Akande.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mustapha Gbadamosi, Musibau Yekini, Saka Raji and Opeyemi Sunday had already spent six years each in prison custody.

The presiding judge, Justice Lateefat Okunnu, ruled that the two years should run from the day they were held in custody.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had arraigned the accused before the court on a two-count charge of murder and misdemeanour.

The prosecution said the offences were committed at about 3 a.m on April 17, 2005 in Mosan, Ipaja, Lagos.

The DPP alleged that Gbadamosi killed Akande while the other three were his accomplices.

The prosecution also said the remains of Akande were badly mutilated in order to make the body unidentifiable.

According to DPP, the mutilated body was later thrown into a canal.

On the murder charge levelled against Gbadamosi, the court said it could not succeed “because the killing was done on the grounds of self defence”.

The judge said that the evidence before the court showed that the incidence was “an exchange of friendly fire” and subsequently discharged the accused.

On the second charge of misdemeanour, the judge observed that the evidence against them was strong, showing that he, Sunday, participated in the act.

Okunnu said “even though Sunday, in his statement, tried to exonerate himself from the act, he had been found guilty alongside the others.”

The judge also said there was no evidence to prove that the statements of the accused were coerced and that the court relied on them.

According to her, the misconduct and unlawful possession of a dead body contravened Sections 329(a) and 242 (2) of the Criminal Code Law, Cap. C. Vol.2, Laws of Lagos State, 2003.

Okunnu found the accused persons guilty of misdemeanour and sentenced each of them to two years imprisonment, effective from the day they were taken into prison custody in April 2005.