An Akure High Court has sentenced a motorcycle operator popularly called Okada rider to death by hanging for robbing a woman of N100,000.
Yaya Bashiru was convicted by Justice S. A. Bola for robbing Mrs. Bukola Ademola of her valuables and money on two occasions and on another occasion also stole her generating set.
He was arraigned with one Idowu Femi, who was later discharged and acquitted by the court for lack of evidence against him by the prosecution.
The duo- Yahaya Bashiru and Idowu Femi- were brought before the court on charges of conspiracy to commit robbery, robbery on two occasions, illegal possession of firearms and stealing.
When their plea was taken, the two men pleaded not guilty to the five charges preferred against them by the prosecution.
The complainant while testifying before the court said that she was coming from her shop around 9 p.m. when she observed a motorcycle with two men on it trailing her.
She said that the two men jumped into her car and took her bag which contained her phone and the proceeds from the day’s sales when she alighted from her car to open the gate of her house.
According to Bukola, her husband who was in the house has a spinal cord injury and could not rescue her.
The complainant told the court that her shout for help led to the arrest of the suspect, who shot into the air and threatened to shoot anyone that tried to stop them.
It was also alleged that the same gang had also attacked her in January last year on her way home from her shop on a motorcycle.
She testified that she was pulled down from the motorcycle and her bag was pulled from her grasp by the same guy, who then hit her on the head with the butt of his gun and she became unconscious.
The complainant claimed that the new phone and a sum of N80, 000 were in the bag that was taken from her.
The police witness, Olakanmi Otadokun said after the report was lodged at the Ala police station, the police detectives started investigation and the suspects were traced through the stolen phone and the first defendant arrested around Ijoka road area, Akure with a gun in his bag.
The investigative police officer had also testified that it was the confessional statement of the first accused person that had led to the arrest of the second accused person and that the second accused person.
The second defendant, Femi Idowu, claimed that he was a bricklayer and was neither an armed robber nor did he possess a gun.
In his judgment, Justice Bola said “following the testimony of the complainant which he had no cause to disbelieve and the forensic analysis which led the police to the first defendant, I, therefore, find you guilty of conspiracy, robbery and illegal possession of firearms.
He, however, said the prosecution had failed to provide any evidence linking the defendants to the stealing of the generating set and has no concrete evidence linking the second defendant to the commission of the crimes listed in the particulars of offence.
The defense counsel, Abdurrahman Yusuf of the Legal Aid Council urged the court to temper justice with mercy as his client was a first offender, who has aged parents and has been remorseful when he was in the prison custody.
The Judge, who closed his ears to the plea, sentenced the first defendant to death by hanging while he discharged and acquitted the second defendant..
