By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.
A Kogi State High Court sitting in Lokoja has discharged and acquitted two kidnap and robbery suspects, Harrison Orubabe and Justice Yakubu, over contradictory evidence provided by the prosecution.
Justice I.A. Jamil of the State High Court who delivered the judgment in the criminal trial of the accused on Wednesday in Lokoja said the prosecution could not discharge the onus of proof that the accused committed the alleged offences.
He rather blamed the prosecution counsels led by P.B. Daudu Esq. for creating doubts in the mind of the court hence the discharge and acquittal of the suspects.
The prosecution counsels had arraigned Orubabe and Yakubu on Jan 19, before Justice Jamil on three count charge of conspiracy, kidnapping and robbery contrary to sections 97(1), 48(a)(b) and 298(a) of Kogi Penal Code Law 2019 respectively.
The prosecution had presented confessional statements purportedly made by the accused upon which further investigation revealed that the suspects kidnapped one Prosper Obanla, on February. 28, 2022 at Obajana in Kogi and took him to Warri in Delta State.
It further claimed that the suspects also asked for a ransom of N1000,000 from the victim’s father, Chief Olusegun Obanla threatening that his failure to pay would only make them to hill his son.
During cross examinations of the victim by the defence Counsels, Barrister Martin Atojoko and Philip Idiok, the victim asserted that he had never been to Warri as claimed by the prosecution.
Atojoko also revealed another contradiction, where the purported confessional statements of the two accused clearly showed that the alleged victim sought the assistance of the accused to staged his own kidnap to get some money from his rich father to buy a “good phone.”
Atojoko said that the Police had claimed that in his confessional statements, Yakubu claimed that he and the victim went to Itape Train Station in Kogi, where he (Victim) boarded a train to Warri, Delta adding that the victim gave him N1,000 to return to Obajana.
The planned kidnap, he said, indeed paid off as they got N200,000 ransom paid by the supposed kidnap victims (Prosper’s) father, Chief Olusegun Obanla.
In his judgement, Justice Jamil held that there was a conflict or contradiction of evidence in relation to the consent or otherwise of the supposed victim in relation to the kidnap.
“The absence and consent of the victim is a material ingredients in proving an offence of kidnap, when properly defined.
“This court is in serious doubt as to whether PW3 (victim) was taken away into confinement by the accused persons without his consent or with his consent.
“Where a court is in doubt of a material fact necessary to establish a commission of a crime by the defendant, the court can’t convict or same.
“Similarly, where PW3 (victim) refused to agree to have gone to Warri just as the IPO PW2) in his witness statement said Investigations revealed that the two defendants took him to Warri, it’s difficult for this court to accept one version of the evidences.
“Again, the victim himself said that it wasn’t a kidnapping case as it was staged in order for him to get some money from his father. These set of evidences came from the prosecution.
“You, the prosecution, has put this court in doubt of what you are claiming such that I can’t accept one version and refuse the other.
“This is so because the prosecution could not prove what actually happened on Feb. 28, 2022 beyond reasonable doubt.
“On the whole, the prosecution has failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt any or all of the count charges labeled against the two suspects.
“Consequently, the two defendants are hereby discharged and acquitted,” the judge declared. (Ends)