Criminal High Court of Justice sitting in Benin City, has sentenced a dismissed Police Constable, Joseph Omotosho, to death by hanging for conspiring with four other constables, to kill a car dealer in 2015.
The slain car dealer, Benson Obodeh, was arrested and accused of being part of a criminal gang.
Mr Omotosho, who was dismissed from the Nigerian Police Force after the incident, served with the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit that was notorious for its brutality and other forms of human rights abuses.
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The dismissed Constable alongside, Corporals, Adeleke Adedeji, Abena John, Oniyo Musa, Henry Shobowole, were found guilty after undergoing a court trial on eight-count charge bordering on Conspiracy to Steal and murder over alleged car theft incident back in 2015.
The four other dismissed constables were also convicted but not sentenced because they were not present in the court.
While on trial, they were said to have escaped during jailbreak into one of the Medium Security Correctional Centres in Benin City amid the October 2020 #EndSARS protest.
Read Also: #EndSARS Protests: Another Jailbreak In Benin As Hoodlums Free Inmates At Oko Prison (Videos)
Presiding judge, Justice Ohimai Ovbiagele, delivered judgment on the fifth defendant, Joseph Omotosho, who was the only one present in Court.
The judge found all the accused persons guilty on an eight-count charge, which included conspiracy to steal and murder.
From the court proceedings, the slain Mr Obodeh, 26, a Benin-based car dealer, was listed as a member of a criminal gang who allegedly stole a Peugeot car in Lagos state.
He was arrested at his home in Benin City on May 21, 2015 and tortured to death the same day by the five police officers.
His corpse was dumped at the Specialist Hospital in Benin City, with a different name by one of the officers that killed him.
Mr Obodeh’s family wrote a petition to the Inspector-General of Police where they demanded an investigation, after searching for several weeks without finding him.
After an orderly room trial by the police authorities, the five officers were found liable and dismissed from the service to face court trial.
The judge, Mr Ovbiagele, said the testimonies against the accused were firm and almost unchallenged.
Mr Ovbiagele pointed out that the accused could not substantiate counter evidence against charges leveled against them.
He then ruled;
The fifth defendant, Joseph Omotosho, is sentenced to death by hanging or with chemical infusion as an alternative on conspiracy to commit murder.
Mr Omotosho was also sentenced to seven years imprisonment for his role in stealing of the deceased money from his bank accounts.
The #EndSARS protest, which rocked several Nigerian cities last year, was a reaction to years of police brutality, as officers in the country are rarely brought to justice for their crimes against citizens.
The death sentence against the dismissed police constable may, therefore, offer a glimpse of hope to Nigerians who have been clamouring for reforms in the country’s criminal justice system.
