Witness recounts how Oniba suspected kidnappers killed security guard

Lagos High Court Igbosere was told yesterday by the third prosecution witness, Sergeant Ademo Rahim, in the ongoing trial of the four suspects in the alleged kidnap of the traditional ruler of Iba Town, Oba Goriola Oseni that in the course of his investigation, he discovered that the security guard at the palace of Oniba, one Sunday Okanlawon was shot in the head, but that he didn’t know how the motorcycle rider Joseph Okeke died.

The defendants are standing trial on an eight-count charge bordering on conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, robbery, armed robbery, felony and kidnapping preferred against them by the Lagos State Government. The defendants are Duba Furejo, Ododowo Isaiah, Reuben Anthony and Yerin Fresh. They were first arraigned on October 24, 2016.

The charge stated that the defendants murdered two deceased persons during the alleged kidnap of the Oba. The witness said that when he got to the scene of the crime he saw pool of blood at two different posts, one at the palace entrance gate and the other at the security post of the palace.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mrs. Idowu Alakija, led Rahim who is the investigating police officer (IPO) attached to Ojo Divisional Headquarters in evidence. While testifying, the witness said that when he visited the crime scene the next day on July 17, the place was deserted, as there was nobody to attend to him. The witness who was testifying before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, said that he visited the crime scene after the monarch’s son Kazeem Oseni reported a case of kidnap, murder and armed robbery, and after the DPO and the DCO visited the place on the day of the incident, the case was now assigned to me and I swung into action the next day.

“Before I got there the deceased bodies have been taken to Badagry General Hospital Mortuary. It was the local police at Iba Town that removed the bodies and deposited them at the mortuary,” he said.