A Lagos High Court, sitting in Ikeja, has found the four men tried for kidnapping Mrs. Gloria Emole, younger sister of the Managing Director of Emzor Pharmaceuticals, Chief Ebuka Okafor.
The presiding judge, Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo found the four men guilty of conspiracy, armed robbery and the kidnapping of Mrs Gloria Emole, and consequently sentenced them to death by hanging.
The judged pronounced that the four convicted men-Victor Chukwunonso, Ifeanyi Maduaka, Obinna Nwankwo, and Richard Nwabueze-be hanged in the neck till they be dead.
Justice Lawal-Akapo said the prosecution had proved its case beyond all reasonable doubts and subsequently found the kidnappers guilty of the offence of armed robbery established against them.
“The first convict was arrested after the IMEI number of the victim’s Nokia phone number which got lost was inserted in another phone, and it brought out all the information,” Justice Lawal-Akapo said. “After he was arrested, he made a confessional statement that led to the arrest of 2nd convict.
“The provision of the law is that, in the instant case, I have tested the statement and it passed all conditions. The confessional statement that the first Defendant worked with the victim’s elder brother, was collaborated by other witnesses.”
ThisDay reported that the convicts were first arraigned on a three-count charge bordering on conspiracy, armed robbery, and kidnapping preferred against them by Lagos State on July 13, 2013, and had been remanded in prison custody since then.
During the arraignment of the accused persons, the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Dr Babajide Martins, had told the court that the convicts swooped on the victim when she was about leaving her house at 7, Unity Street, Ogudu GRA, Lagos.
The DPP further told the court that after abducting the woman, the kidnappers blindfolded her and threw her inside the booth of the car; then drove her an unknown destination in Ikorodu. The victim was, however, released on November 22, 2022 after her husband had paid a ransom of US$70,000 (Seventy Thousand US dollars).
The Prosecutor summed up everything and said the offences were contrary to Sections 297, 285(2) (a), and 291, of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015, and punishable by death.
The prosecution called four witnesses who testified against the four accused persons during the trial.
The first convict Chukwunoso, was a former employee of the victim’s elder brother, who was sacked after he went against company rules by fighting within the premises of the company.
