BPD News

The Bureau of The Public Defender Got Judgement in Favour of its client, in a Criminal Case

The defendant was charged on a 2 count charge of armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery. Only one witness(the IPO) showed up in court despite several adjournment. The case of the prosecution(pw1) was that on a fateful day, the defendant (our client) was brought to the station because some people had identified him that he looks like the person who robbed a man by name mohammed (complainant)of his motorcycle popularly known as okada.

According to pw1 she said she was told that the defendant in company of 2 other people who were fully masked robbed one Mohammed at gun point and took his bike from him but that he identified the defendant because he was not masked this case was never reported to the police until a month after, when the defendant was seen on his way to work in the morning. Pw1 told the court that she did not visit the crime scene because the defendant was brought in the night and it was late. She also said she did not carry out any form of investigation due to that fact.she admitted to the court that the defendant claimed that he did not commit the offence and that he said that he had never seen the said complainant all his life . She further stated that as a result of this, the defendant was taken to SARS because he refused to confess or admit to the crime. She also told the court that she did not know the color, type or make of okada that was allegedly stolen from the complainant, neither did she have the registration number or chassis number. Dw1 on the other hand told the court that he was on his way to work at about 5.30am when some people attacked him claiming that he was the person who robbed the complainant of his bike.he stated that before he knew what was going on he was almost lynched by a mob who had already started beating him up before he was taken to the station.he reiterated that he did not steal any bike and that even on the day he was taken to the station he had never seen the complainant before then. Dw1 also told the court that all entreaties to pw1 to take him to his place of work to verify if he was absent or not on the day the complainant claimed his bike was stolen were rebuffed. He told the court that the allegations against him were false and prayed the court to discharge and acquit him. The Honourable Justice Oshodi, gave judgement in favour of the defendant. Defendant was discharged and acquitted.