It was a day of sorrow for the families and relatives of an Ibadan –based Baptist Church Clergyman, Pastor Adeniyi Mathew and Evangelist, Akeem Banjamin, when a state High Court sitting in Olokuta sentenced them to death by hanging for robbery.
The clergy men were alleged to have robbed former N.B.M Bank, now Sterling Bank in Akure some years ago.
The trial judge, justice David Kolawole, pronounced the death sentence on Mathew and Benjamin, alongside two others having found them guilty of the two count offences of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and robbery.
The two other convicts are Cosmos Obi, a trader from Delta State and Sherif Ogunleye, who claimed to be an apprentice radiator technician at Ikirun, Osun State.
Delivering judgment in the eight-year old robbery case, Justice Kolawole held that he found the convicts guilty of the charge based on sufficient evidence established by the prosecution .
However, three other defendants charged alongside, Olatunji Akinbode Akindele (first defendant) and Saliu Ahmed (seventh defendant) were discharged and acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence to convict them.
At the commencement of trial on June 5, 2013, eight defendants were arraigned before the court, but the 5th defendant, Johnson Olarewaju escaped from lawful custody during the jail break at the Akure prison on June 30,2013.
The seven remaining defendants were thereafter, arraigned before the court on two count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery contrary to section 5[b] of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act and Armed Robbery contrary to section 1(2) (b) of the same Act.
The particulars of the charge read that Akindele, Mathew,Benjanin, Obi, Ogunleye, Akande and Ahmed conspired to commit armed robbery and they did commit robbery by robbing N.B.M Bank, Akure, now Sterling Bank on or about July 2, 2005.
The charges were read to the defendants and explained to them in Yoruba, a language they claimed to understand.
But they pleaded not guilty individually on two counts.
During the trial, the prosecution called only one witness, Police Inspector Abimbola Olayiwola, attached to the Federal Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS, Force CID Annex, Lagos ,while all the seven defendants testified for the defence.
Inspector Olayiwola, in his testimony, told the court that they worked as a team in his office and that he knew the defendants.
In view of this, Pastor Mathew Benjamin, Obi and Ogunleye are each sentenced to death by hanging on the neck until they be dead.
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