Taofeek Adeleke & Anor. V. The State (2011)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

STANLEY SHENKO ALAGOA, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

In the High Court of Justice Abeokuta Ogun State of Nigeria the present Appellants as 1st and 2nd Accused were arraigned, tried, convicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment on a two count charge of Conspiracy to commit Armed Robbery and Robbery. The Charge for which they pleaded not guilty was as follows –

COUNT I – That you Taofeek Adeleke (M), Mumuni Olaoye (M) and others now at large on or about the 15th day of March 2002 at Onigari area of the lbadan/Lagos Expressway in the Abeokuta Judicial Division conspired together to commit a felony to wit: Armed Robbery contrary to section 5(b) and punishable under section 1(2)(a) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act (Cap 398) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 as amended by the Tribunals (Certain Consequential Amendments etc.) Act 1999.

COUNT II – That you Taofeek Adeleke (M), Mumuni Olaoye (M) and others now at large on or about the 15th day of March 2002 at Onigari area of the Ibadan/Lagos Expressway in the Abeokuta Judicial Division did rob one Mrs. Monsurat Moni Babatunde of the sum of N500,000.00 and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 1(i) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act (Cap 398), Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 as Amended by the Tribunals (Certain Consequential Amendments etc.) Act 1999.

The prosecution called four witnesses to establish its case and also relied on some exhibits while the accused/Appellants gave evidence in defence of themselves. After a full trial and addresses of Counsel, the learned trial Judge Shoremi J. (as he then was) in his reserved judgment delivered on the 14th June, 2004 convicted and sentenced the accused/Appellants as follows –

1st accused Taofeek Adeleke is sentenced as follows:-

1st Count – 10 years imprisonment I.H.L.

2nd Count – 21 years imprisonment I.H.L.

2nd accused Mumuni Olaoye is sentenced as follows:-

1st Count – 10 years imprisonment I.H.L.

2nd Count – 21 years imprisonment I.H.L.

It is against this judgment that the 1st and 2nd accused persons as 1st and 2nd Appellants have appealed to the court of Appeal by their Notice of Appeal dated the 19th January, 2007 which was subsequently amended by an order of Court granted on the 28th May, 2008.

The case for the prosecution is that the 2nd Appellant Mumuni Olaoye who was the driver of PW1 Mrs. Monsurat Moni Babatunde and who had driven her for some three months prior to the present incident, had on the 14th March, 2002 driven PW1 to All States Trust Bank Ibadan where she withdrew a sum of N500,000.00 which she intended to take to Lagos for business the following day. The 2nd Appellant asked her for the sum of N5,000.00 as loan and her account is that she refused to give it to him because he had just been paid and she told him so. Having collected the N500,000.00 from All States Trust Bank Ibadan she went home. The next day being the 15th March, 2002, PW1, her daughter Temitope, her Ward and one Morufat Adebayo (PW2) left for Lagos driven by the 2nd Appellant. PW1 instructed 2nd Appellant to buy petrol at Challenge Ibadan but he insisted that he would buy it elsewhere. The 2nd Appellant began the journey to Lagos on the fast lane of the Expressway but suddenly changed to the slow lane.

When he was asked by PW1 whether there was any problem his response was that there was none. In the course of their journey to Lagos a black Mercedes Benz car which drove parallel to them asked the 2nd Appellant to stop and park by the roadside, the occupants of the said Benz car claiming to be policemen. PW1 suspicious that they could not be policemen ordered the 2nd Appellant not to heed to them but to accelerate further. Noticing that her instructions were being flouted by the 2nd Appellant she asked him to vacate the driver’s seat so that she would take over the driving herself and speed off from the intruders but the 2nd Appellant ignored her and parked their car while the other car also parked some metres away and the occupants of the Mercedes Benz car came down with an iron rod. PW1 again ordered the 2nd Appellant to start the car but the 2nd Appellant refused. One of the robbers then went to PW1 while the other went to the 2nd Appellant.