Legal counsel to kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, alias Evans, Olukoya Ogungbeje, yesterday urged a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere to quash all the charges filed against his client by the Lagos State Government.
He told the court that Evans should be tried by one judge since similar charges were pending before an Ikeja Division of Lagos High Court. 

At the resumed hearing of the case yesterday, Ogungbeje, informed the court that he had filed a motion on notice to quash all the charges filed against Evans. Ogungbeje said all the charges were “grossly defective, repetitive and an abuse of court processes.”

He also said, the prosecution had earlier filed similar charges and amended charges bordering on kidnapping against Evans pending before the same High Court and counts three, four and five were repetitions of same offence. He therefore urged the court to quash the charge because it is defective and an abuse of court process.

It would be recalled that the Lagos government had brought a fresh set of five counts bordering on conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping and attempted murder against Evans and three others. Evans is charged alongside Joseph Emeka, Ugochukwu Nwachukwu and Victor Aduba. In the second charge, Evans is being tried alongside Joseph Emeka, Linus Okpara and Victor Aduba. 

Responding to the motion, State Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP), Titilayo Shitta-Bey, said it is against the provisions of the law to lump the two offences in one count. She also explained that other charges filed against the first defendant before other judges involved different defendants, different offences and different victims. She therefore urged the court to dismiss the application.

Meanwhile, the third defendant, Linus Okpara, in the second charge, has urged the court in a motion on notice to quash the two counts preferred against him. He made the application through his counsel, Jude Igbanoi, adding that the proof of evidence did not disclose any prima facie case against him. 

The prosecutor, in responding to the third defendant’s motion, told the court that the proof of evidence disclosed a prima facie case against him. She said that the proof of evidence disclosed where the third defendant admitted collecting the sum of N2m for the first defendant in relation to one of the victims, Uche Okorafor.Consequently, Justice Adedayo Akintoye, adjourned the case until June 26 for ruling.


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