An Ikeja Special Offences Court presided over by Justice Mojisola Dada has sentenced a vulcanizer, Chidozie Onyinchiz to death by hanging for robbing a nurse of N57,000.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the judge said that the prosecution had proved the three-count charge of conspiracy, armed robbery, and membership of an unlawful society against the 32-year-old Onyinchiz.
Dada said the convict’s attempt to wriggle out of the charges was futile.
She said this was because he earlier confirmed to the police at Igando, Lagos, that his victim, Mrs. Veronica Uwayzor sighted him and they both recognized each other at the time of the offense.
“The defendant had stated that the complainant pointed at him as one of the boys armed with a pair of scissors forcefully snatched her bag containing N57,000 at Akesan Bus Stop.
“The complainant had stated that neither the defendant nor his accomplice, Ediri Endurance, (still at large) wore masks which made it possible for her to easily recognize Onyinchiz few hours after the robbery.
“The first statement of the defendant which he made at Igando Police Station confirmed that he and Ediri went to Akesan Bus Stop on the day of the robbery.
“Onyinchiz admitted to belonging to an unlawful society as he stated that: `this is my first time of coming to Akesan to steal. I was initiated into Eiye Confraternity in 2009 but I have not killed before.’
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“The same information of him being a vulcanizer was also contained in the statement he made at Igando police station and the one he made at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad office at Ikeja.
“In his confessional statement, Onyinchiz stated that he met Ediri Endurance in a public bus and Endurance took him to his father’s house after the bus developed fault.
“He also stated that they ended up sleeping in an uncompleted building because Endurance’s father did not open the door for them to spend the night in his house.
“The statement corroborated the submission of the victim that she was accosted at about 4.30 a.m. by two boys holding an iron rod and a pair of scissors on the day of the incident.
“She said the two boys were the ones who robbed her.
“The totality of the evidence before the court is compelling and I find the defendant guilty of the charges preferred against him.
“He is hereby sentenced to death by hanging and may God have mercy on his soul,’’ Justice Dada said.