An Ikeja Special Offences Court, has acquitted and discharged a 38-year-old plumber, Anthony Bello, who appeared to have been wrongly accused of murder.
Justice Mojisola Dada of the court discharged and acquitted Anthony on the basis that the prosecution could not establish charges of murder and unlawful assembly against him.
The defendant, who was accused of killing a man identified as Onome Uchenunu, was arraigned on two counts before the court on October 7, 2019, and he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The offences were said to have been committed on January 23, 2012, and the defendant was arrested six years later.
In the course of the trial, the prosecution called two witnesses, Inspector Abimbola Ogunsoro and Inspector Bola Ebireri.
Narrating how Bello was nabbed, Ogunsoro, who claimed to be attached to the Ikeja Police Station, recalled that in 2018, she was on a surveillance team patrol with her men when the team arrested one Pedro, otherwise known as Olakunle Ogunyemi.
The witness said they interrogated him because he had been on their list as a notorious criminal.
Ogunsoro further stated that Pedro made a confessional statement about the people he killed and mentioned Uchenunu as one of the victims of his gang, adding that he was stabbed to death by Bello (the defendant).
The witness added that the revelation led to a search for the defendant, who was apprehended the same night.
Ogunsoro quoted the defendant as admitting to killing Uchenunu, whom Pedro was trying to rob.
”The defendant (Bello) quickly grabbed a knife from a mallam and stabbed Uchenunu, which led to his death. After the incident, the defendant and Pedro ran away and they never came to that environment again until they were both arrested,” the police inspector stated.
On his part, the defendant said he was in his house ironing his children’s uniform when he saw some people mounting his fence.
Bello said immediately the policemen entered his house, they asked him the job he was doing and he said he was a plumber, but one of them slapped him and said he was a liar, accusing him of being a Yahoo boy (Internet fraudster).
According to the defendant, after spending two weeks at the Iba Police Station, he was later transferred to the defunct-Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Ikeja, where he went through hell.
Bello, who wore a white dress, and had spent four years in prison custody, however, broke down in tears as the judge acquitted him.
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