15th June, 2017
A prosecution witness, Inspector Olaide Adediran, on Thursday told an FCT High Court, Lugbe, how two members of an alleged robbery gang were arrested by the police in Kaduna.
Adediran of the Gwagwalada FCT Police Command, gave the explanation when he was led in evidence by the Prosecuting Counsel, Mr Donatus Abang .
The witness said that Onyekachi Collins, 24, and Emmanuel Moses, 19, were arrested for robbing one Mr Oyewole Elijah, his wife and son who were dispossessed of their valuables on July 22, 2016 by the suspects.
Adediran listed the item stolen by the robbers after gaining entrance to the house to include; a plasma television set, a laptop computer loaded with sensitive materials, his Opel Safari car and mobile phones, among others.
The witness also told the court that the son to the complainant, one Elijah David, was attacked and stabbed severally by the defendants in their bid to gain entrance to the house at Compensation Layout Gwagwalada, Abuja.
Adediran said that the complainant, reported the robbery incident at the FCT Gwagwalada Police Division same day the robbery took place.
The witness said that the police immediately swung into action and obtained the needed information, adding that they asked the complainant to be on the look-out for possible suspects.
“We also went ahead to do our work, visited the scene of the crime, we met the house completely disorganised with blood stains everywhere,” he said.
He said that the complainant was asked to produce the photocopy of the particulars of the vehicle to help the police in their search.
The witness said the police immediately raised signal to all police commands across the country for possible recovery.
The witness told the court that it was the complainant that latter discovered the car where it was parked to be sold at a mechanic shop in Kaduna.
Adediran said the complainant immediately alerted the Gwagwalada police division, where he was asked to pretend as a serious buyer.
“I advised him to delay the dialogue while pretending as a buyer and ensure that both the seller and agent were around for negotiation.
”The suspects were thereafter arrested. Some policemen were directed to verify the car documents and to ascertain if it was the actual vehicle, and we ensured that the documents were all correct,” he said.
He said that the robbers forcefully collected the vehicle documents from the complainant while committing the crime, but the police were able to identify the car.
The witness said that the case was latter transferred to Gwagwalada police division from the Kaduna Command and subsequently to the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SAR), Abuja.
He said the photographs of the vehicle and the two suspects were handed over to SARs for further investigation.
The witness said that statements were obtained from the two suspects, adding that they were then detained immediately.
In his response, Mr Nurudeen Suleiman, Counsel to the defendants, said that he would be challenging the authenticity of the statements in his address.
He pleaded with the judge for an adjournment to enable him peruse the statements.
Thereafter, the judge, Justice Angela Otaluka , adjourned the case till Sept. 27 for continuation of hearing.