Set to be Convicted, Accused Changes Plea

Set to be convicted for alleged conspiracy and assault, two unemployed men on Thursday recanted and told an Oshodi Magistrates’ Court in Lagos that their earlier guilty plea was obtained involuntarily.
Ahmed Ramon, 29, and Segun Johnson, 39, both residents of Oko-Mola Main Market, Oshodi, were earlier arraigned on Aug. 27 over the offences and remanded at the Kirikiri Prisons after their guilty plea.
A mild drama, however, ensued in court as the magistrate, Mrs Adebiyi Osho was about to sentence the duo and the accused frantically requested to change their plea to not guilty.
The prosecutor, Cpl. Kehinde Olatunde, had told the court that the defendants committed the offences on Aug. 22 at Charity bus-stop on the Oshodi- Mile 2 Expressway.
He said that the defendants conspired together to assault Patrick Okechukwu, a staff of Imo Transport Service, by giving him blows to his right eye, thereby causing him bodily harm.
Olatunde said that the complainant was in his office attending to customers when he noticed the duo moving suspiciously around his passengers’ belongings.
“He accosted them to inquire what their mission was inside the transport service premises but they did not give a genuine answer to the question.
“The complainant consequently chased them out of the premises to avoid passengers’ luggage being stolen“, he said.
The prosecutor said that it was at the gate of the premises that the defendants descended on him by giving him blows and also that they also hit him with a heavy piece of wood, which landed him in the hospital.
He said that the offences contravened Sections 171 and 407 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State, 2011.
The Magistrate, Mrs Adebiyi Osho, granted the accused bail in the sum of N100,000 each with one surety each in like sum.
She adjourned the case to Oct.17 for trial.