Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of an Ikeja Special Offences Court has sentenced a domestic worker, Genesis Ezebong, his brother, Micheal and one Ikade Moses, to life imprisonment for armed r%bbery in the Palm Groove area of Lagos State.
The convicts were arraigned on December 18, 2020 while the trial commenced on January 11, 2022. The prosecution counsel, Omowumi Bajulaye, during the arraignment of the convicts, had told the court that they committed the offence of conspiracy and armed r%bbery on January 13, 2019, at No 222 Ikorodu Road, Palm Groove, Lagos.
She said that the trio while armed with cutl@ss, shovel and other d@ngerous we@pons, r%bbed one Daniel of one Compact Laptop, one Apple laptop, gold and costumes, jewelleries, Blackberry phones, one digital camera, soccer shoes and two other phones belonging to one Titilope Akeredolu. The prosecution, during trial, called three witnesses and tendered documents such as defendants’ statements which were admitted as exhibits.
The witnesses who had testified before the court included Inspector Okunade Olumuyiwa, Titilope Akeredolu and Investigative Police officer and Inspector Olawale Oni. They had narrated to the court how Akeredolu’s domestic worker conspired with others, who were armed with d@ngerous we@pons, broke into his boss’s house with his gang after he had left to church, and locked the security man as well as other occupants in the toilet.
Akeredolu said after she went to church on Sunday morning, she received a call from her security man who told her that the first convict, Genesis Ezebong, her domestic staff, broke into her apartment with a cutlass and stole her things.
The judge held that the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt, the circumstantial evidence against the defendants whils sentencing them.