An Ekiti State High Court has actually sentenced a lecturer, Shittu Isiaka, to death by hanging after convicting him of heist and conspiracy to dedicate armed robbery.
Justice Oladimeji Adejumo delivered the verdict after ruling that the prosecution effectively established the offences of conspiracy and heist versus the offender beyond reasonable doubt.
Throughout the trial, the victim, recognized as Olowoyeye, stated how he narrowly got away death after the attack. He told the court that he rolled through the bush till he reached a nearby highway, where cops patrol officers eventually rescued him and took him to a healthcare facility for treatment.
According to the victim, the injuries sustained throughout the incident triggered him to pass bloody urine for several days, adding that he invested about 15 days getting medical care.
A cops witness, Inspector Kehinde Omotosho, likewise affirmed that highway patrol officers later on brought the victim to the police station in Igbara-Oke, where he made a formal statement linking Isiaka in the burglary.
However, the defendant denied the accusations, firmly insisting that he had no participation in the criminal activity. Isiaka also declined claims that he injected the victim with any substance.
The speaker argued before the court that he was not a physician and for that reason had no licence to administer injections. He even more contended that investigators stopped working to produce any syringe or object apparently used in the act, worrying that no medical report was presented to support the victim’s claim.
In her judgment, Justice Adejumo ruled that the prosecution stopped working to prove the accusation of threatening life in line with Section 135( 1) of the Evidence Act.
The judge observed that there were no eyewitnesses to the supposed injection which no medical report was tendered to support the victim’s claim. She added that it would be unsafe for the court to rely exclusively on the testament of the victim and another witness without supporting medical evidence.
Subsequently, the court acquitted Isiaka of the charge bordering on threatening life.
Despite the acquittal on that count, the judge held that enough evidence linked the offender to the heist.
Justice Adejumo therefore convicted Isiaka of conspiracy to devote heist and armed robbery, sentencing him to life imprisonment for conspiracy and death by hanging for heist.
“The sentence of the court upon you is that you be hanged by the neck till you are dead,” the judge pronounced.