Ayodele Olalere
Justice Hakeem Oshodi of an Ikeja High Court on Friday faulted the claim by the alleged kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, a.k.a. Evans, that he was tortured by the police to extract confessional statements from him.
The court also admitted the confessional statements of the fourth and sixth defendants charge alongside him as exhibit in the trial.
In his ruling, the judge said the defendants did not provide any evidence to back their allegations that they were tortured by the police.
Justice Oshodi who noted that the 1999 Constitution did not require that statements to the Police must be in a specific form pointed out that there was no proof that the duo were tortured by the Police.
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Following the ruling, Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution, Mr. Yakubu Osoala, requested for an adjournment due to the absence of the fourth prosecution witness, Inspector Idowu Haruna.
During the trial-within-trial, Chilaka Ifeanyi and Victor Achuba claimed that their alleged confessional statement to the Police was not obtained voluntarily, alleging that Police officers tortured them and made them to witness executions in a bid to get them to admit to the alleged crimes.
Evans is standing trial alongside Uche Amadi, Ogechi Uchechukwu, Chilaka Ifeanyi, Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu and Victor Aduba.
The six were arraigned on August 30, 2017 on two counts of conspiracy and kidnap of the Chief Executive Officer of Maydon Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Donatus Dunu, from whose family they allegedly collected 223,000 Euro (N100m) as ransom.
Evans and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to all the charges.