* His accomplices on the run
Justice Ohimai Ovbiagele of an Edo State High Court in Benin City has sentenced a police constable – Joseph Omotosho – to death by “hanging or chemical infusion” after he was found guilty of murdering one Benson Obodeh, a car dealer in 2015.
Omotosho and four other members of his team currently on the run were arraigned on an eighth count charge bordering on conspiracy, stealing and murder.
Other defendants in the suit marked: NO. B/CD/48C/2015 are; Adeleke Adedeji, Oniyo Musa, Abena John and Henry Shobowale.
The five defendants who served with the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit that was notorious for brutality and other forms of human rights abuses, were earlier dismissed from the Nigerian Police Force to pave the way for their trial.
The defendants – all Police Corporals – had arrested Benson Obodeh on allegation of stealing.
After his arrest, they took him to the Edo State CID Office, Benin, where they reportedly tortured him to death on May 21, 2015.
The defendants, thereafter, deposited the corpse at the Benin Central Hospital morgue and tagged the corpse by a wrong name, Benson Agu.
It, however, took several months for the family of the deceased to trace the corpse.
Immediately after the death of Obodeh, the defendants were said to have embarked on a trip to Port Harcourt and, on the occasion, used the deceased’s ATM card to withdraw the sum of Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (₦350,000) from his account on May 22 and 23, 2015.
To prove the allegations against the former members of the disbanded SARS, the prosecution called 19 witnesses, including those that witnessed the torture, and a pathologist.
Also an autopsy report indicating that the deceased had a heart condition, occasioned by the torture, which caused his heart to fail, was tendered before the court.
Delivering judgment in the case on February 12, 2021 – nearly six years after the murder – the judge found all five accused persons guilty; and sentenced the 5th defendant, Joseph Omotosho, the only one present in Court, to seven years imprisonment for conspiracy; and death by hanging or chemical infusion for murder.
Justice Ovbiagele suspended the sentencing of the other absconded police officers, in line with Section 352(5) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Edo State until when the convicts are presented before the court.
The other four defendants reportedly escaped from custody during the October 20, 2020 “prison break” incident in Benin and Oko Correctional Centres.
The prison break was carried out by hoodlums who hijacked the EndSARS protests in Benin and other cities across the country.
Only Omotosho was in custody at the time of the judgment.