Robbery: We Were Roped – Suspects

By Kehinde Oladele

Two ‘bricklayers’, Mathew Bamidele, 44 and Timothy Ishola, 30 have told an Osogbo magistrate court that they did not engage in any robbery attack, but roped by the police.

During their arraignment on armed robbery charge before the court, the duo said the statements claimed to be their own by the police were made on their behalf and it was never read or interpreted to them.

The Prosecutor, Inspector Elisha Olusegun had told the court that the accused person committed the offence on 2^nd August, 2017 at about 06:45pm at Onibueja, Osogbo.

The charge sheet revealed that the accused person, well armed with dangerous weapons, such as knife and iron rod, robbed one Adesina Afeez of his Bajaj Boxer motorcycle, valued N127,000 and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 1(2) (a) (b), section 6 (b) of the Robbery and fire arms (special provisions) Act Cap RII vol. 14 laws of Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

The accused persons told the court that “we are bricklayers and we boarded a bike that will carry us to site on the said day, but on reaching our destination, the motorcyclist refused to take N300 as agreed, and insisted on taking N500 from us.

“In the process, argument ensued and he started shouting ‘thief, thief’ after which we were arrested. The police did not read any statement to us before bringing us to court.

One of the accused persons, Mathew Bamidele told the court that “police operatives have checked our houses and they did not find any dangerous weapon but only a motorcycle parked in front of my house. My wife obtained loan from NAPO bank to buy the motorcycle and she employed a motorcyclist that works daily with it because I do not know how to ride motorcycle.

“The motorcycle was parked in front of our house, because it is faulty and we are yet to repair it, because there is no money yet”. The accused persons also denied the allegation of possessing dangerous weapon.

The magistrate, Mary Awodele said that the case would be transferred to the High Court, as her court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter, which is a robbery case.

She then remanded the accused person in prison custody and the case was adjourned till 15^th of December, 2017 for mention.