After efforts by some elements within the professions to make him escape justice for being the first most conspicuously noted high profile kidnapper in Nigeria, Chukwudimeme Onwuamadike a.k.a. Evans has been convicted and sentenced to Life Imprisonment by court.
The DEFENDER reports that Evans was sentenced Friday 25 February, 2022 – several weeks after he had been reported in some sections of the online media (excluding ours) that he had been sentenced to death by the court, an attempt some of our investigations revealed to be the connivers’ way of using the media to organise a decoy where Evans would be let off the hook and simply taken abroad for face surgery and returned to continue living his life while many would think he had been killed. This was described as a non-perfected plot as the elements always got exposed.
There had been several blackmails against the Nigerian Police Force by these elements, especial in the early year (2017) of his arrest and detainment in police custody. The whole matter came to a close on Friday and justice finally came to the side of victims of the Nigeria’s billionaire kidnapper.
The sentence of Chukwudimeme Onwuamadike a.k.a. Evans was handed down by Justice Hakeem Oshodi of the Lagos High Court in Ikeja, on Friday. He was sentenced along with two others namely; Uche Amadi and Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu to life imprisonment for kidnapping a businessman, Donatus Dunu.
Evans and five other defendants — Uche Amadi, Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu, Ogechi Uchechukwu, Chilaka Ifeanyi and Victor Aduba— were arraigned in August 2017 for kidnapping Dunu, who is the Managing Director of Maydon Pharmaceuticals Ltd. on February 14, 2017, and collecting 223,000 Euros as ransom from his family.
Delivering judgment in the case, Justice Oshodi held that the prosecution had succeeded in proving the charge against the three convicts beyond a reasonable doubt.
He concluded that the evidence tendered before the court especially the videos evidence collaborated the guilty of the convicts.
Justice Oshodi, however, 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.
He noted the allocutors of the defence counsel Olarewaju Ajanaku and H.O. Ajibola that the convicts are first time offenders, remorseful and learnt their lesson.
But disagreed with the defence lawyers that the convicts have shown remorse.
He held that they are unrepentant and comfortably lied to the court.
The trial judge also noted the submission of thẹ former DPP, Ms Titi Shitta-Bey that in view of the gravity of the offence and that kidnapping has been on the rise, that maximun sentence bẹ imposed to serve as deterrence to others.
Judgement
Justice Oshodi held that the defendants have not shown any remorse going by the video shown in court.
He said: “I believe a lesson must be taught to serve as deterrence to others.
“The Law is the Law. Section 411 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State (ACJL) 2015 must be applied to send the right message to the public that crime does not pay.
“Under the section 411 of the law on which the convicts were arraigned, the penalty for the offence of kidnapping is life imprisonment and the law does not give the court any discretion in the matter.
“I hereby sentenced the three convicts, Chukwudimeme Onwuamadike, Uche Amadi and Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu to life inprisonment.”
Evans’s counsel, Victor Opara (SAN), while making his final oral submission, in December 21, had asked the court to discharge and acquit him of the two-count charge before it, saying there was no direct evidence linking Evans to the alleged crimes.
But, prosecution counsel, Adebayo Haroun, urged the court to convict the defendants as charged, saying there was circumstantial evidence linking them as well as confessional statements and video recordings of the accused.
Evans and several other alleged accomplices are also facing two charges before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of an Ikeja Special Offences Court and another two charges before Justice Adedayo Akintoye of the High Court in Igbosere.
