AN IKEJA High Court in Lagos, on Monday sentenced a labourer, Samson Saliu, whose specialty is robbing people at the Ijora Badiya bridge, to 10 years imprisonment for armed robbery.
Justice Modupe Nicol-Clay sentenced the 30-year-old Saliu, after a plea bargain agreement.
The convict in the plea bargain agreement had changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.
He was first arraigned on July 21, 2021, on a six-count charge of conspiracy, and armed robbery preferred against him by the state government.
The state’s prosecution counsel, Mrs Titilayo Olanrenwaju-Daudu, had told the court that Saliu committed the offences with others now at large.
She said that the convict robbed his victims of their valuables while he was armed with a jack knife and ground plug.
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She added that the convict perpetuated the crime in the early hours of the morning and late at night at the Ijora Badia Bridge.
Olanrenwaju-Daudu told the court that the convict had in the early hours of Dec. 21, 2016, robbed one Jamiu Ramon of his N25,000 cash, at the Ijora Badiya Bridge in the state.
She also told the court that Saliu robbed one Abdulqudus Ayomide of his Smile Wifi, a Visafone Wifi, ATM cards, a make-up bag, and a bag containing a Samsung phone, a Blackberry phone and an iPad, all property of Ayomide’s boss.
The prosecutor also told the court that Saliu, on Dec. 23, 2016, at about 7:30 p.m., robbed Odiri Oginni of her phone and handbag containing a White wristwatch and a memory card.
Saliu, on the same day, was said to have robbed one Patrick Eki of a Samsung Symphony phone, an Apple iPad, an external hard drive, a flash drive, a Bible, and the cash of N180,000.
According to her, the offences contravened Sections 299 and 297 (2), (a) of the criminal law of Lagos State 2015.
However, Saliu pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and the trial commenced.
Trial commenced on Oct. 3, 2022, and the prosecution called two witnesses, Patrick Eki and Adekunle Adeoye, who testified against the convict before he later changed his plea.
Delivering judgment, Justice Nicol-Clay held that the first prosecution witness Eki, had testified that the convict and others were robbing people in their cars which attracted his attention.
The judge further said that the second prosecution witness, Adekunle Adeoye, had also testified that the convict also robbed him on Sept. 23, 2016.
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The judge further held that on Oct. 9, 2023, the convict was re-arraigned on an amended charge after he changed his plea.
She said the amended charge was now conspiracy and attempted robbery which contravened Sections 301 and 406 of the criminal law of Lagos State 2015.
Nicol-Clay in her judgment said after going through the plea bargain agreement she finds him guilty of the offences of conspiracy and attempted armed robbery.
“Samson Saliu, I found you guilty and I sentence you to 10 years imprisonment. “The term of the imprisonment shall commence from the day he was first remanded in 2016, I so hold,” the judge said. (NAN)
