Evans’ attorney wants the court to look into the deaths of three witnesses while they were in police custody.

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, aka Evans’ attorney, recently requested that the Ikeja Special Offenses Court in Lagos look into the deaths of three witnesses who died while in police custody during Evans’ trial.

The three witnesses who were on trial with Evans and Adubua died in police custody, he informed Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Ikeja Special Offenses Court, and no autopsy was performed to determine the cause of death.

The defense attorney argued that the fact that they passed away while in police custody while being in good health when they were detained calls into severe doubt the veracity of the gang leader’s confessional admissions.

The final written addresses that the two lawyers, Emmanuel Ochai and his colleague, submitted to the judge were adopted.

They urged the court to release and acquit Evans and his co-defendant, arguing that the prosecution had failed in a number of ways to establish its case against them beyond a reasonable doubt.

Ochai stated, “Since it is a criminal trial, the court has a duty to question the prosecution’s evidence because the allegations are serious and carry the possibility of death or life in prison, necessitating questioning of both the prosecution and the evidence.

Four witnesses, he claimed, testified at the trial, and he added that the prosecution’s preferred evidence had several flaws. “First of all, the trial got off to a bad start. The constitutional requirement that suspects be brought before a judge within 24 hours was disregarded.

The attorney said that inconsistent notes existed between the defendants’ arrest in 2014 and their 2017 arraignment.

Justice is served in two ways: by the fact that both the accused and the accuser, Onyebuchi, had contact with the alleged kidnappers but was not presented to the court as evidence, and by the fact that other people have had no contact with them.

Ochai, who questioned the witness testimony in front of the court, claimed that two locations were mentioned in the evidence as the places where the kidnapping crime occurred. One in Amuwo Odofin and another who claimed the incident occurred in Isolo raised the question of whether or not the claim was accurate given that the location of the kidnapping is now in question.

He clarified that despite having access to the call logs from the telecommunications companies, the police had not provided any phone numbers as evidence.

He said, “I want an inquest into why the three people died in police custody. Five suspects were detained, three were picked up by police, and they told us that three people died.

Yusuf Sule, the prosecution attorney, called for the court to convict the first and second defendants in response in his response.

He emphasized that although a confession of one person cannot be used against another person, there are exceptions where the nexus correlates and is interwoven, citing a Supreme Court decision, saying that a defendant need not have been present at the crime site to be found guilty.

Nothing in the case, according to Sule, demonstrates that they were either killed or subjected to torture. “There is no proof to support that. There was no proof in court that they were healthy at the time of arrest.

The judge continued the hearing of the attorneys’ arguments until September 19 before rendering a decision.

Evans is on trial with Aduba, an ex-soldier, for kidnapping Sylvanus Ahamonu and demanding a ransom of $420,000 from his family.

They are accused of kidnapping and illegally possessing guns on four counts.