Alleged kidnap kingpin, Chukwudimeme Onwuamadike (alias Evans) and five others are due to have judgment delivered on them anytime from now over charges of conspiracy and kidnapping.
Evans’ co-defendants are Uche Amadi, Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu, Ogechi Uchechukwu, Chilaka Ifeanyi and Victor Aduba.
They have been on trial since August 2017 before Justice Hakeem Oshodi of the Lagos State High Court at Ikeja.
The defendants are accused of kidnapping Donatus Dunu, who is the Managing Director of Maydon Pharmaceuticals Ltd. on Feb. 14, 2017, and collecting 223,000 Euros as ransom from his family.
The defendants who were earlier charged under Sections 411 and 271(3) Criminal Law Cap C17 Laws of Lagos State 2015 are now being charged under Section 2(1) of the Kidnapping Prohibition Law, No 13, Laws of Lagos State 2017.
If found guilty, they risk a maximum life sentence under the extant laws.
Contrary to false viral online reports, this is the first judgment to be fixed in any of the five kidnapping cases currently involving Evans in the high courts of Lagos State.
Evans and several alleged accomplices are also facing two charges before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of an Ikeja Special Offences Court and another two charges before Justice Adedayo Akintoye of the High Court in Igbosere.
The judgment due to be delivered by Justice Oshodi this Friday was fixed after the court heard oral submissions of final written addresses by prosecution and defence counsel in December 2021.
Evans’s counsel, Victor Opara (SAN), while making his oral submission, had asked the court to discharge and acquit Him of the two-count charge before it, saying there was no direct evidence linking Evans to the alleged crimes.
But, prosecution counsel, Adebayo Haroun, urged the court to convict the defendants as charged, saying there We was circumstantial evidence linking them as well as confessional statements and video recordings of the accused.
