Ekiti: Court sentences two to death by hanging for armed robbery

• The defendant were said to have committed the crime on August 16, 2022, along Iluomoba Road, Aisegba Ekiti.

In Ekiti State, two men will die by hanging for dispossessing two persons of cash and valuable items, a court in the south west State ruled on Thursday.

The convicts, Benjamin Joseph (32), and Stephen Orban (25), were convicted and sentenced by the State’s high court in Ado Ekiti.

The defendant were said to have committed the crime on August 16, 2022, along Iluomoba Road, Aisegba Ekiti.

They were arraigned on December 30, 2022, on four counts bordering on conspiracy and armed robbery.

The defendants, according to the charge, were said to have “ conspire to commit a felony, to wit; armed robbery.

“As of the time of the robbery, they were armed with locally made guns, knives and cutlasses and did rob Daramola Christiana and Ajayi Alaba of their belongings such as phones, power bank, creams, drugs, ATM cards and N105,000 cash among others.

“The offences are contrary to Sections 6(b) and 1(2)(a) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act, Cap. RII, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004,” the charge stated.

In her testimony before the court, one of the victims, a trader, said four armed men attacked them at a barricaded point at Aisegba Ekiti along the Omuo-Ado Ekiti Road, saying, “They collected our phones, power bank, other valuables and a cash sum of N105, 000 and ran into the bush. I was rescued by a sympathiser, but the driver drove back to Omuo and made a formal complaint to the police.”

The prosecutor, Ibironke Odetola, called six witnesses and tendered charms, phones, camouflage underwear, a hammer, three hoods, fake dollar notes, and cutlasses among others as exhibits, while the defendants spoke in their defence through their lawyer, Adeyinka Opaleke, and called no witnesses.

In the judgment on Thursday, Justice Blessing Ajileye, who said the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubt that there was an armed robbery on August 16, 2022, found the two persons guilty.

The judge pronounced, “Consequently, the sentence of this court upon Benjamin Joseph and Stephen Orban is that they are hanged by the neck until they are dead. May God have mercy on your souls.”