A Togolese cook, Sunday Anani, charged with the murder of the Chief Executive Officer of Credit Switch Ltd, Chief Opeyemi Bademosi, on Tuesday told a Lagos High Court in Igbosere that he was interested in a plea bargain agreement with the government.
Anani, 23, is standing trial on a two-count charge of murder and armed robbery preferred against him by the Lagos State government.
According to the prosecution, Anani, last October 31, at Parkview Estate, Ikoyi Lagos, stabbed Bademosi, 67, to death with a knife and stole his valuables.
He was arraigned on April 10, and pleaded “Not guilty”, following which the judge adjourned till yesterday for trial.
At the commencement of proceedings on Tuesday, Anani’s counsel, the Director of the Office of the Public Defender (OPD), Mrs Aderenra Adeyemi, informed the court of the defendant’s intention to change his plea.
Adeyemi told Justice Mobolanle Okikiolu-Ighile that Anani would be opting for a plea bargain deal and that the defence had approached the prosecutor, Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Ms Titilayo Shitta-Bay, to that effect.
The judge directed her to bring application to that effect and ordered that trial should continue.
Shitta-Bey then called Mrs. Ebunoluwa Bademosi, wife of the deceased, as the prosecution’s first witness.
The witness narrated how on the day of the incident, she returned from a bank to find her husband in a pool of blood on the floor.
She said: “I went through the kitchen door to gain access to the building. The kitchen door was locked. I knocked several times, calling on the defendant (Anani), but he didn’t come to open the door.
See also AMCON INVADES VICTORY PARK ESTATE WITH POLICEMEN AND ARMED THUGS ..........FORCIBLY THROW OUT WOMEN AND CHILDREN FROM THEIR HOMES Tuesday, 25th June 2019 was a traumatic day for over 300 Families in Victory Park Estate, Lekki Lagos. Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) in a gestapo style action invaded the homes of Residents in Victory Park Estate while most residents were at their places of work leaving their young families exposed to the invasion of over 30 armed police men and over fifty thugs claiming to be executing a High Court Judgement of 2017 against Knight Rook, Grant Properties and the Awosedo’s (Promoters of Victory Park Estate). According to eyewitness who craved anonymity “the Action was carefully planned by the AMCON and its Receiver Manager, Mr. Lanre Olaoluwa to take place at a time that most Home Owners would be at their places of work”. Homeowners had to rush back to the Estate when they received a distress call from vulnerable members of their families left at home. A traumatized resident who also witness the AMCON rampage lamented that “One of the families with children between the ages of 3 and below were forced out of their homes with little or no time to pick any personal effects under heavy downpour and very heavy armed presence”. He decried such inhumane treatment of hapless victims of high handedness and warned against a reoccurrence. AMCON Obtained a Judgement against the Promoters of the Estate and seeks to attach the lands and property in the Estate to the Judgement debt without taking into consideration existing encumbrances which are lands owned by Individuals and families who purchased their land, built their homes and have been living in the Estate without any notice at the time of purchase of their land of any encumbrances on the land. No Registered Mortgage and no Caveat at the Lands Registry. The various Banks that handed over the debt of the promoters to AMCON, knew that the Promoters were selling the lands to innocent hard working Nigerians who took loans to purchase land in a supposed secured Site and Service Estate having done their due diligence at the land registry. The Promoters and the Banks are parties to the fraud against innocent Nigerians and now AMCON has degenerated to an Omonile by taking over homes of families and sending mothers and children out of their homes under very heavy armed presence and down pour. AMCON is a supposed Agency of Government and must not be seen to exploit the vulnerability of families that genuinely purchased land and built their homes in their Country only to be evacuated from their homes in a gestapo manner. AMCON Act provides that AMCON and its Receiver Manager shall take over Assets subject to existing encumbrances. The Judgement against the Asset of the promoters should ideally not extend to what no longer belongs to the Promoters. “You cannot give what you don’t have”. Families in Victory Park now live in fear and horror not knowing which family will be next to be thrown out of their homes. A Government should not through its Agency treat its citizens like outcasts. The families are vulnerable, AMCON has the instrument of State, the Courts and the Police and now the self help thugs. “Who do the Citizens, the over 300 young families in Victory Park; Who do they have”. While the Families are seeking legal help, AMCON as a Government Agency is enjoined to immediately call to Order its Receiver Manager, Mr Lanre Olaoluwa who happens to be a legal practitioner to desist from the harassment and intimidation of families with the use of armed thugs and heavily armed police men.
“My husband’s bedroom and the kitchen door was a distance, so I felt he (Anani) must be doing something for him, so I waited by the kitchen door, for a while.
“While i was waiting, I got a call from my sister, at Ibadan and we spoke for about 5-6 minutes.
‘’At some point, I brought out my phone from my bag and called my husband, I realised that the phone was being picked but he was not responding.
‘’I called him twice and it was the same thing. It was showing minutes counting but nobody was talking.
‘’I went downstairs and decided to pass through the front door, thinking if I got there, there would be somebody at the door. By the time i got to the front door, I realised that the door was left ajar.”
She said that was when she knew something had gone wrong.
The witness said: “I entered the apartment. By the time I got in, I looked up and saw blood flowing out of my husband’s bedroom.
‘’I couldn’t enter my husband’s bedroom because the door was only partially open but I could see his body lying on the floor.
‘’I wasn’t sure of what could be happening inside the bedroom, so, I ran out of the building and started screaming, calling neighbours to help.
‘’A couple of people came. I told them to go up and check that something was happening, that I didn’t know what exactly it was”.
Mrs. Bademosi told the court that she ran to the gate and asked the security man, “Where is that guy that oga brought into the house? What is happening? Who is inside the house?”
The guard said the defendant informed him the deceased sent him on an errand.
“People started coming, my next door neighbours and her driver were going upstairs and I followed them but i stood at a distance.
‘’They came out and said he was gone (sobbing), my husband was gone, and the defendant was not inside the house, then i passed out.
“When I woke up, I saw a crowd around me, inside the house, my husband’s corpse was lying down there.
‘’They took me downstairs because they didn’t want me to see the corpse. The police later came and took his corpse in an ambulance, he was buried on November 21, 2018″.
Following her heavy sobbing, Justice adjourned for a few minutes.
Afterwards, the witness was cross examined by the Director of the Office of the Public Defender (OPD), Mrs. Aderenra Adeyemi.
She told Adeyemi she had had no problems with the deceased.
“I had a very cordial relationship with my husband. I cooked for my husband”.
When Adeyemi suggested she had had a strained relationship with her husband, following which she didn’t relate well with Anani.
Mrs. Bademosi disagreed, saying “I did not have a strained relationship with my husband.”
Justice Okikiolu-Ighile, adjourned till June 11, for continuation of trial.
(C) The Nation
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