Court rejects statements of 2 armed robbery suspects
An FCT High Court in Maitama has rejected the statements of two armed robbery suspects which the police had said were made voluntarily. The defendants, Omenini Bayallah, 22; Paul Sunday, 20, and Dahiru Yusuf, 40, had pleaded not guilty to a three-count charge of armed robbery, conspiracy and receiving stolen property levelled against them. The […]
An FCT High Court in Maitama has rejected the statements of two armed robbery suspects which the police had said were made voluntarily.
The defendants, Omenini Bayallah, 22; Paul Sunday, 20, and Dahiru Yusuf, 40, had pleaded not guilty to a three-count charge of armed robbery, conspiracy and receiving stolen property levelled against them.
The prosecutor, Stanley Nwodo, had informed the court that on July 14, 2017, at about 2a.m., Bayallah and Sunday, at Maitama, Abuja, robbed one Ogechukwu Irono of her Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phone valued at $2,500, jewelries valued at N32 million, and other personal items.
Nwodo said that Dahiru Yusuf, on the same date received the stolen jewelries. He said the offences contravened Section 6 of the Armed Robbery and Firearms Act.
When Nwodo sought to tender statements allegedly made by Bayallah and Sunday in the course of the trial, their counsel, Ogede Mohammed, objected to the admissibility of the statements.
The trial judge, Justice Peter Affen, thereafter ordered for trial-within-trial to ascertain the voluntariness of the statements.
Affen, in his ruling on the trial-within-trial, held that the prosecution failed to lead evidence to show that the details of sections 16 (4) and 17 (2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015 were complied with.
“It, therefore, seems to be obvious that the extra-judicial statements of Aug. 8, 2017 and July 30, 2017, can scarcely be said to have been voluntarily made by Bayallah and Sunday.
“And the proper thing to do is to mark the statements tendered as rejected,” he held.
He adjourned the matter until Oct. 18 for continuation of trial.