A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin on Monday granted the prayer of the defence counsel asking for an independent examination of the alleged gunshot injuries sustained by three accused persons alleged to have participated in the April 5, 2018 robbery incident in Offa.
Five
accused persons are standing trial in the robbery case. They are Ayoade
Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salaudeen Azeez and
Niyi Ogundiran.
But the court refused a post-mortem examination
on the corpse of the principal suspect in the robbery incident, Michael
Adikwu, who the accused persons claimed, was deliberately killed by a
police inspector while in custody at the force headquarters in Abuja.
The
court, during a “trial within trial” on Monday, granted the prayer of
the defence counsel, Mr Mathias Emeribe, asking for an independent
examination of the alleged gunshot injuries sustained by the first,
second and third accused persons detained in police custody during the
investigation of the robbery incident.
Earlier, the 5th accused
person (Niyi Ogundiran), had narrated to the court how the police
extracted confessional statement from him under duress.
The
first, second and third accused persons had at the last adjourned date
accused the police of shooting them in the legs to instill fear in them
before extracting statements from them.
They also alleged that
the police shot Adikwu dead while in their custody contrary to the
police narrative that the man died of an ailment in a hospital.
Inspector
Hitila Hassan, the second prosecution witness, who was the
investigating police officer in the case, told the court that Adikwu
died of malaria and typhoid while in police custody in Abuja.
But
following the allegations by the accused persons that the police forced
them to explain their role in the robbery operation, the defence
counsel applied “for an independent medical examination of the legs of
the first, second and third accused persons to determine whether the
wounds in their legs are products of gunshots.
“I also ask for an
order to carry out autopsy on the corpse of Michael Adikwu, the
principal suspect so as to find corroboration to evidence of especially
the 5th accused person as well as all the other three accused persons.
“The
essence of this is not unconnected with the fact that Adikwu was
initially one of the accused persons charged along with others and it is
important that one of their own was allegedly killed before them.
“The
fact of the cause of his death must be determined in order to find out
the truth as to how the confessional statements were obtained.
“The
name of Michael Adikwu was repeated consistently by all the four
accused persons in this trial within trial and I think it will be in the
interest of justice for the accused persons to put in a proper defence
to get the result of that medical examination.”
But the prosecution counsel, Prof. Wahab Egbewole (SAN), opposed the application, describing it as strange.
Egbewole
said, “I urge the court to refuse this strange application, justice is
not a one-way traffic. It is available to all the parties and not only
for the accused persons.
“For the record, this is a trial within
trial specifically to determine the voluntariness of the statements of
the accused persons. It is not for the court to look for evidence to
corroborate his allegation. It is for him to do that.
“This
application is tantamount to inviting your lordship to come to the
arena. The application is clearly shopping for evidence. The shooting of
Adikwu has no relevance to the issues of a trial within trial.”
In
her ruling, Justice Salman said, “The court will avail all the parties
all the facilities available in this case. It is therefore in the
interest of justice and fair hearing to allow for a medical examination
to know whether the healed wounds in the three suspects’ legs emanated
from gunshots. I therefore grant the first prayer.
Justice Salman adjourned the case to April 8.
Source:- Punchng
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