…Say ‘we are not guilty again’

By Romanus Okoye

Kidnap suspect, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike a.k.a Evans and his five alleged accomplices, yesterday, changed their plea to not guilty following the amended charges by the prosecution.

While the charges still border on conspiracy and kidnapping, the law under which they were charged was changed to: “The Prohibition of the Act of Kidnapping Law of Lagos State 2017,” which prescribed death sentence for kidnappers whose victims died in their custody and life sentence for kidnappers whose victims came out alive.

Before their change of plea, Evans, Uche Amadi and Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu had pleaded guilty while Ogechi Uchechukwu, Chilaka Ifeanyi and Victor Chukwunonso Aduba pleaded not guilty. But Evan’s lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, had alleged that his client was forced to plead guilty to the charges preferred against him and others by the Lagos State Government and had vowed that on the next hearing (yesterday), his clients would change their pleas.

Ogungbeje had told journalists after the arraignment that his client might have pleaded guilty under duress or after heavy brainwashing. He said: “The law must take its full course and the coming days will determine the way the matter will go. But we must put it on record that we were not allowed access to our client by the police. It was this morning that we had time to talk with him. By law, we need time to go through the accusations and prepare our defence or even decide whether we can defend him.”

Meanwhile, there was mild drama as two lawyers separately announced their appearances for the 4th defendant, Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu. The drama was resolved when the court asked the defendant to openly make his choice of counsel and he chose O. Ajanaku in place of the Olukoya Ogungbeje team that is representing Evans. Ajanaku explained to the court that after his client’s arraignment, his client’s family approached him to take over the case.

On the day of arraignment, only Ogungbeje represented all the defendants. Yesterday, while Ogungbeje represented first and second defendants, Joseph Otogbolu represented the third defendant, Ajanaku represented the fourth defendant, A.A. Uzokwu represents the fifth defendant and Emmanuel Ochai represented the sixth.

Ogungbeje insisted that his allegations against the police were still true despite the denial of rape or assault by the female defendant, Ogechi Uchechukwu.

Justice Hakeem Oshodi adjourned the case till November 3, 2017 for continuation of trial.