Islamic Cleric To Spend 14 Years In Jail For Attempted Robbery
Justice Raliat Adebiyi of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja Wednesday convicted and sentenced an Islamic Cleric, Taofeek Olawale to 14 years imprisonment for armed robbery.
Justice Raliat Adebiyi handed down the verdict after she found the convict, also known as Alfa, guilty of two count charge of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and attempted armed robbery.
During the trial, the complainant’, Jephthah Ekwueme, who was the only prosecution witness had told the court that on the day of the incident he was lying in bed when someone shone a torch light through his window and ordered him to open the door.
He said, “I heard more than one voice ordering me to open the door to my apartment that they were armed robbers.
“I grabbed a cutlass and swung it through the window and it hit one of them. They thereafter took to their heels and it was then I opened the door and call out for my neighbors. I pursued one of them who happened to be the defendant who I had injured with the cutlass who was also wearing a long white garment.
“He ran into the next compound and I followed him there. I managed to subdue him until the police arrived,” he testified.
But the convict had told the court that he had gone to Lakwe Junction on May 6,2012, to offer sacrifices on behalf on one his clients.
He said, “I live with my girlfriend at Lakwe.
“On the day of the incident around 12.am, I had gone to the T-junction at Lakwe dressed in a white Jalabiya to offer sacrifices on behalf of my client who was suffering from leg pains and also spiritual problems.
“It was while I was chanting incantations that someone suddenly appeared with a cutlass and struck me on the head. I lost consciousness only to wake up and find myself in the Lagos State Teaching Hospital,” he said.
In her judgment, Justice Adebiyi found the defendant guilty on the grounds that the prosecution was able to prove its case of attempted robbery against the defendant.
The judge held, “The only witness in the matter told the court that the defendant was wearing a white garment when he was caught on the night of the incident, and this was also corroborated by the defendant who also affirmed that he was wearing a white jalabiya on the night of the incident.
” The defendant was also caught at the scene of the crime with the witness who is also the victim identifying him,” the Judge ruled.
Justice Adebiyi thereafter sentenced the convict to 14 years in prison on both counts.
