Four years after: Court sentences Evans, 2 others to life imprisonment over kidnapping of businessman

By allcitynews.ng culled from LEADERSHIP Newspaper

Four years after,  Justice Hakeem Oshodi of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja, today Friday 25 February 2022, convicted a kidnap kingpin, Chukwudimeme Onwuamadike, alias Evans, and two others for conspiracy and kidnapping.

Justice Oshodi convicted Evans, who is also known as a billionaire kidnapper, after he found him guilty of a two-count charge of kidnapping the Managing Director of Maydon Pharmaceuticals Limited, Donatus Dunu.

Others convicted alongside Evans were Uche Amadi and Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu.

The judge held that the prosecution had succeeded in proving the case against the three convicts beyond reasonable doubt.

He concluded that the evidence tendered before the court especially the video evidence corroborated the guilt of the convicts.

However, the court discharged and acquitted Ogechi Uchechukw and two former soldiers of the Nigerian Army, Chilaka Ifeanyi and Victor Aduba, for lack of sufficient evidence linking them to the crime.

The prosecution had told the court that the convicts committed the alleged offence between February 14 and April 12, 2017.

The prosecution had further told the court that the incident took place at about 7:45 pm, along Obokun Street, Ilupeju, Lagos.

The prosecution disclosed that on April 12, 2017, Evans alongside the other five defendants while armed with guns and other weapons, captured, detained and collected a ransom of 223,000 Euros from Donatus for his release.

The Lagos State government had arraigned them before the court on August 30, 2017 pursuant to Section 155 subsection 1 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2017, which prescribes life imprisonment for the crime.

The prosecution closed its case against the defendants on January 10, 2020, after presenting four witnesses, including Dunu while the defence closed its case on August 3, 2020, after the six defendants had testified.

The judge is, however, yet to sentence the convicts as the proceedings is still ongoing.

Evans is also facing similar charges before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo and Justice Adedayo Akintoye of the same court.

Details Later…