Offa robbery: Court refuses post-mortem examination of dead suspect

…Approves medical test on alleged gunshot wounds on three
accused

Kwara state High Court sitting in Ilorin, the state capital
Monday refused the exhumation of the corpse of the death principal
suspect, Michael Adikwu in the April 5th, 2018 bloody Offa robbery
incident, for post-mortem examination to determine the cause of his
death.

But the court granted the prayer of the defence asking for an
independent examination of the alleged gunshot injuries sustained
by the first, second and third accused persons in the case.

The accused persons Ayoade Akinnibosun (1st accused person),
Ibikunle Ogunleye (2nd accused person) and Adeola Abraham (3rd
accused person), Salaudeen Azeez (4th accused person) and Niyi
Ogundiran (5th accused person) were in court.

Earlier, the 5th accused person (Niyi Ogundiran) narrated in the
court how the police extracted his confessional statement from him
under duress.

The first, second and third accused persons had at the last
adjourned date accused the police of shooting them on the legs to
instill fear in them before extracting statement from them.

They also alleged that the police shot death Michael Adikwu
while in their custody contrary to what the police said that the
man died of an ailment in a hospital.

As a result, defence counsel Mathias Emeribe said that “in view
of the fact that the four accused persons had given their stories,
I hereby apply for an independent medical examination of the legs
of the first,
second and third accused persons to determine whether the wounds on
their legs are products of gunshots.

“I also ask for an order to carry out autopsy on the death of
Michael Adikwu, the principal suspect so as to find corroboration
to evidence of especially the 5th accused person as well as all the
other three
persons.

“The essence of this is not unconnected with the fact that
Adikwu was initially one of the accused persons charged along with
others and it is important that one of their own was allegedly
killed before them. The fact of the cause of the death must be
determined in order to find out the truth as top how the
confessional statements were obtained.

“The name Michael Adikwu was repeated consistently by all the
four accused persons in this trial within trial and I think it will
be in the interest of justice for the accused persons to put in a
proper defence to get the result of that medical examination.”

But prosecution counsel Prof Wahab Egbewole (SAN) opposed the
application vehemently, describing it as strange.

Said Egbewole: “I urge the court to refuse this strange
application; justice is not a one way traffic. It is available to
all the parties and not only for the accused.

“For the record, this is a trial within trial specifically to
determine the voluntariness of the statements of the accused
persons. It is not for the court to look for evidence to
corroborate his allegation. It is for him to do that.

“This application is tantamount to inviting your lordship to
come to the arena. The application is clearly shopping for
evidence. The shooting of Adikwu has no relevance to the issues of
a trial within
trial.”

Having listened to both parties, presiding judge, Justice Halima
Salman took a shot break of proceeding before delivering her
ruling.

In her ruling Justice Salman said “the court will avail all the
parties all the facilities available in this case. It is therefore
in the interest of justice and fair hearing to allow for a medical
examination to know whether the healed wounds on the three
suspects’ legs emanated from gunshots. I therefore grant the first
prayer.

“On the post-mortem examination of the corpse of the dead
Michael Adikwu, there is nothing the autopsy will add to this case.
It is baseless and pointless to grant the second prayer.”

She ordered the court Registrar to prepare the “enroll order
today to be served on both the defence and prosecution.”

Justice Salman adjourned the case to April 8th for continuation
of defence in trial within trial.