February 25, (THEWILL) – A Lagos State High Court in Ikeja, on Friday, convicted a kidnap kingpin, Chukwudimeme Onwuamadike, alias Evans for conspiracy and kidnapping.
The court found Evans guilty of a two-count charge of kidnapping the Managing Director of Maydon Pharmaceuticals Limited, Donatus Dunu.
In a three-hour judgment on Friday, Justice Hakeem Oshodi, also convicted two of Evans’s co-defendants, Uche Amadi and Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu.
Oshodi found the three defendants guilty of conspiracy and kidnapping. They were all sentenced to life imprisonment.
The judge, who held that the prosecution had proved the case against the three convicts beyond reasonable doubt, said the evidence tendered before the court especially the video evidence corroborated the guilt of the convicts.
The Court, however, discharged and acquitted the other co-defendants, Ogechi Uchechukwu, Chilaka Ifeanyi, an ex-soldier; and Victor Aduba, also an ex-soldier, for lack of sufficient evidence linking them to the crime.
The prosecution had told the court that the convicts committed the alleged offence between February 14 and April 12, 2017.
The prosecution disclosed that on April 12, 2017, Evans alongside the other five defendants while armed with guns and other weapons, “captured, detained and collected a ransom of 223,000 Euros from Donatus” for his release.
The Lagos State government had arraigned them before the court on August 30, 2017 pursuant to Section 155 subsection 1 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2017, which prescribes life imprisonment for the crime.
The prosecution closed its case against the defendants on January 10, 2020, after presenting four witnesses including Dunu, while the defence closed its case on August 3, 2020, after the six defendants had testified.
The case was stood down for an hour before sentencing of the convicts.
On reconvening, the court finally, after about five years, sentenced Evans, Amadi, Nwachukwu to life imprisonment.
