An
Ikeja High Court, presided over by Justice Joseph Oyewole, yesterday sentenced
four policemen and an accomplice to 25 years imprisonment each for robbery.
Justice
Olubunmi Oyewole convicted the policemen;
The convicted persons are Bestman
Dennar (52), Musa Mohammed (45), Peter Enidiok (53), Godwin Williams (44) and
Emmanuel Ajogbor (48) on charges of
conspiracy and robbery.
He said the sentence would run concurrently, beginning from 3 March, 2005 when they were first remanded in prison custody.
Delivering
judgment in the five year long case, Justice Oyewole said: “I hold that
there is sufficient evidence to conspiracy as to commit robbery as
charged. I hereby convict each of them accordingly.’
The judge said the fact that the defendants were policemen was an “aggravating factor.”
Oyewole
said: “I have duly considered the allocutus. However, the defendants
are policemen trained to protect the public and not otherwise. This in
itself is an aggravating factor.
“The defendants took advantage of their being members of the Nigeria Police Force to rob citizens.
“Using the police uniform to rob is a bad signal to the public because it will erode’s people’s confidence on the police.
“The
image of the police should not be dented to the extent that members of
the public will begin to see police checkpoints as armed robbers’
locations,” he said.
The policemen were charged to court for robbing the lorry which was loaded with George and Lace materials.
The
prosecutor, Mrs Patience Alu, said the incident took place around 9 p.m
on 17 November, 2002 along the Ikorodu-Ijebu Ode Expressway, when the
lorry was en route to Benin with the goods.
Alu claimed the defendants had mounted a road block on the road and ordered the driver of the lorry and his assistant to alight.
According to her, the defendants forcefully took the vehicle’s keys and drove it away to an undisclosed location.
She
said the occupants of the vehicle, Messrs Ogundare Sadiru and Peter
Akpovile, later went to report the matter at Igbogbo Police Station in
Ikorodu.
According to her, the lorry was eventually found at Acme Road, Ikeja, Lagos without any of the textile materials.
The prosecutor said some of the goods were found in one of the houses of the defendants during a search by the police.