Judge blames prosecution for dragging Offa bank robbery case

The judge in the April 5, 2018 Offa bank robbery case, Justice Haleemah Salman, has blamed the prosecution team for the seeming delay in the dispensation of the case.

At the resumed hearing of the case yesterday, after a prolonged adjournment, Salman expressed the court’s displeasure in the media reports that the court was delaying the trial of the suspects.

“The court is not happy about the news going round in the media that the court is delaying adjudication on this matter. If anybody is to be blamed for the delay in this trial, it’s the prosecution.

“The case was adjourned on September 7, 2020 till December 21/22 to enable the prosecution to bring its key witness (Inspector Joseph Danjuma) to court. But on December 21, the prosecution was still unable to produce the witness, citing administrative bottlenecks,” the judge lamented.

Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Bola Gold, had filed an application before the court seeking the replacement of its key witness,
Danjuma, with Inspector John Newoke.

He told the court that Danjuma was outside the country on an official assignment, and sought an adjournment to enable them to assemble the necessary gadgets needed to interpret videos and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) footages.

“The witness is to give evidence on videos and CCTV footage and we need to arrange gadgets in the court for this purpose.”

We will need an adjournment in view of the technicalities involved in this,” Gold submitted.

The defence counsel, Mathias Emeribe, agreed to the adjournment. He, however, complained that the health challenge of the first defendant, Ayoade Akinnibosun, had not been attended to as ordered by the court in the last adjourned date.

After granting the prosecution’s request for adjournment, Justice Salman fumed: “It’s your case. I don’t know whether you are working for the defence. Just state your case and I will record.”

Salman, who said the subsisting order of the court on the need for the doctor at the Correctional Service Centre, Ilorin, to attend to the health challenge of the first defendant was still in force, ordered Dr. Paul Olaleye to give Akinnibosun proper treatment. He reluctantly adjourned the case till February 17, 2021.