Judge orders accelerated trial of Evans

Justice Hakeem Oshodi of an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, on Tuesday, warned counsel to Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike alias “Evans” that no further delays would be tolerated in his ongoing trial.
Justice Oshodi gave the warning following a 30-minute  verbal exchange he had with  Mr Chinonye Obiagwu,  Evans’ new defence counsel who had prayed for an adjournment to study the case file.
Obiagwu is one of  the 31 newly-shortlisted  Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) for induction on September 24.
Justice Oshodi said, “I cannot come from home during vacation to be told that the matter will not go on for one excuse or the other.
“Counsel should desist from filing applications targeting at stalling trial,  parties must get their witnesses ready, so that justice will be served within reasonable time frame.”
Evans had on various occasions hired two defence counsel; Mr Olukoya Ogungbeje and Mr Noel Brown to represent him.
The changes in defence counsel had caused delays in the trial.
Previous court proceedings held on June 26, had been put on hold due to Brown taking over from  Ogungbeje who was Evans’ first defence counsel at the onset of his trial.
Evans is standing trial alongside Uche Amadi, Ogechi Uchechukwu, Chilaka Ifeanyi, Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu and Victor Aduba.
The six accused were arraigned on Aug  30, 2017 on two-count charge of conspiracy and kidnapping of the Chief Executive Officer of Maydon Pharmaceutical Limited, Donatus Dunu, from whose family they allegedly collected 223,000 Euro (N100m) as ransom.
Evans and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Earlier during proceedings, a witness,  Inspector Idowu Haruna of the Intelligence Response Team that arrested the defendants, had told the court how the accused were arrested.
Haruna’ who was led in evidence by Mr Adebayo Haroun,  the State Prosecuting counsel, told the  court that the statements of the defendants were not obtained under duress but rather in a conducive environment.
Following Haruna’s revelation of how the statement were obtained, the prosecuting officer urged the court to admit the statements as evidence.
Obiagwu,  however opposed the admissibility of the statements on the premise that they were obtained under duress prompting Justice Oshodi to order a trial-within-trial.
During the trial-within-trial,  Haruna told the court that when Dunu,  Evans’ alleged victim escaped from the kidnappers den, he was brought to the Anti-Kidnapping Department,  Ikeja and was later taken to the then Lagos State Police Commissioner, Mr Fatai Owoseni.
“Owoseni then ordered a team to move to the defendants hideout at Igando, a suburb of Lagos.
” On getting to the house, the abductors had fled the scene with their little possessions but the police team found some ammunitions in the house which the defendants left behind,” he said.
Haruna revealed that during interrogation,  Evans had alleged that he enjoyed the services of some officers of the Nigerian Army during their kidnap operations.
“Whenever they were going on their  operation,  they put on army uniform to camouflage as army officers and disguise in order to deceive their prey.
“Two army officers involved were later arrested and taken before their superiors at Abati Barracks for disciplinary actions.
“They were dismissed and taken back to the police for further disciplinary action,” Haruna said.
The case was adjourned until October 26 for continuation of the trial-within-trial.