Justice Raliat Adebiyi of an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, yesterday sentenced a 28-year-old bus driver, Ikechukwu Emmanuel, to 50 years in prison for robbing Ikenna Odiachi of N28,000 and Range Rover.
Emmanuel was found guilty and convicted on a two-count charge bordering on conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery.
“The punishment for the offences stipulated in Section 295(1) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos, 2011 states: anyone who commits the offence of armed robbery shall upon conviction be sentenced to imprisonment not less than 21 years.
“The defendant has on several occasions tried to mislead this court by claiming that he does not understand English language and required an interpreter and that he is a driver but denied knowing what a vehicle particulars is.
“The defendant is hereby guilty on both charges and sentenced to 25 years on each count, both to run concurrently, effective from the date of remand in prison custody,” the judge ruled.
The prosecutor, Mrs O. R. Ahmed-Muili, said the incident occurred on March 24, 2013 at Total Filling Station Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Ahmed-Muili said the victim was about driving out of the petrol station when he was accosted by some men who pushed him into the back seat of his car and took over the steering wheels.
She said: “The attackers blindfold him, tied his hands and legs and threatened to kill him if he didn’t cooperate.
“The convict drove the car to a nearby Automated Teller Machine (ATM) where they withdrew the sum of N28,000 from his account and later drove him around Lagos.
“They dropped him in the Yaba area of Lagos and drove off with the car. Unknown to them, the car, which was fixed with an anti-theft tracker, was traced to Benin City. The convict was arrested as the driver of the car.”
Meanwhile, the convict claimed in his confessional statement that he was commissioned by Chukwuma Felix to transport a Range Rover sport to Benin for N50,000.
Emmanuel said he was given the original document of the vehicle and a phone number to call when he arrived in Benin.
He said: “I was paid N30, 000 and money for petrol in Lagos, to collect the outstanding N20,000 on arrival in Benin.
“At Benin, I called the phone number and I was directed to wait patiently at a bar. It was while I was waiting that the police showed up and started beating me and took me to the station.”
