Court Fixes Oct. 18 For Ruling On Admissibility of Evans’ Extra-Judicial Statements

Justice Hakeem Oshodi of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja will on October 18 decide whether or not to admit an extra-judicial statements made by alleged kidnap kingpin Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, also known as Evans in evidence.

Justice Oshodi fixed the date after counsel to the state and defendants argued and adopted their written addresses submission after the conclusion of a trial-within-trial to test the admissibility of Evan’s confessional statement to the police.

Evans is standing trial alongside Uche Amadi, Ogechi Uchechukwu, Chilaka Ifeanyi, Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu and Victor Aduba.

The six were arraigned on Aug 30, 2017 on two counts of conspiracy Evans and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

During the proceedings, the defendants counsel, Olarenwaju Ajanaku had raised issues regarding alleged extra-judicial manner statements were taken from them.

But the new Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN) who is now leading the prosecuting team urged the court to admit the evidence against the defendants.

Onigbanjo argued that since the defendants have admitted that part of the statement was written by them and that the other part were not written by them, such statement cannot be separated.

While being led in evidence by his lawyer, Evans described himself as a businessman dealing in haulage and ornaments resident at No. 3, Fred Soyebode Street, Magodo Lagos.

In vivid detail, Evans described how he was tortured by police officers after his arrest.

“Inspector Idowu Haruna (member of IGP Intelligence Response Team) took me to Abuja and brought me back to Lagos where I was at the Inspector General (IG) Guest House at Obalende, Lagos.

“Sunny the 2 I/C (second in command) to Abba Kyari, Mr. Christian Ugu, Mr Phillip and other police officers working with them were there.

“Idowu Haruna brought about 25 sheets of paper and asked me to sign, that day, my mind told me not to sign because it might be my death warrant.

“Mr Phillip put his hand in his pocket and brought out a brown hospital card, he showed it to me and told me to sign it while saying that do you think that we are joking here, he said if anything happens to me here this card covers everything.

“Mr Phillip said the police will not be held responsible and before I knew Mr Christian slapped me and that was how they started beating me,” Evans told the court.

The alleged kidnap kingpin gave more details to the court how the police officers tortured him and made him witness executions in a bid to get him to admit to his crimes.

He said, “Mr Christian Ugu was smoking, he quenched the cigarette on my hand, My Lord look at my head where they beat me, My Lord look at my hand.

“They took me to the backyard of the I. G guesthouse, I sustained injuries on my head and body and Mr Phillip asked the policemen to walk on me and when I started bleeding, he said you think we are joking here.

“At the backyard, I saw some people that I was paraded with, they were wearing leg chains, some of them had bullet wounds on their legs and Mr Phillip ordered Idowu Haruna to bring a big brown cellotape, handkerchief and polybags.

“Idowu Haruna forced a handkerchief into the mouth of one of them, he used the cellotape to tightly tape his mouth and face and put a polybag over his head and cellotaped it and used another poly bag and cellotaped it for the second time and they left the man on the ground.

“The man on the ground was shaking, he pissed (urinated) on his body, he poo pooed (defecated) on his body and after a while he went quiet.

“Idowu Haruna went to the man and stepped on his body and he was unresponsive and he told me can you see I have travelled him.”

Evans told the court that four more persons were executed in the same manner by the police officers in his presence.