The trial of suspected kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme “Evans” Onwuamadike will on September 13, 2018, resume before Justice Adedayo Akintoye of the Lagos State High Court in Igbosere.
The trial, which last held on June 26, 2018, had been put on hold as a result of the annual vacation of judges.
He is facing two separate charges bordering on conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping and attempted murder.
On June 26 when the case was last heard, the court dismissed applications by the defendants, seeking to quash the charges on the contention that the two charges before Justice Akintoye were duplications of earlier charges filed against Evans and others before Justices Hakeem Oshodi and Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Lagos State High Court.
In the applications filed in May, Evans’ original lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, who later withdrew his services, had contended that the two charges before Justice Akintoye were “grossly defective, repetitive and amounted to an abuse of court processes” because Evans had earlier been charged before Justices Oshodi and Taiwo.
But the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions, Titilayo Shitta-Bey, maintained that the charges were not an abuse of court processes because the different charges contained different victims allegedly kidnapped or murdered by the defendants.
She said the state decided to file different charges to make the cases tidy, adding that different defendants were charged alongside Evans in the different charges.
Ruling on June 26, Justice Akintoye upheld the DPP’s arguments and dismissed Evans’ applications.
She then adjourned till September 13, after court’s vacation, for the continuation of trial.
In the first charge before Justice Akintoye, Evans is standing trial alongside Joseph Emeka, Ugochukwu Nwachukwu, and Victor Aduba.
In the second charge, he is standing trial alongside Joseph Emeka, Linus Okpara and Victor Aduba.
Apart from the two charges before Justice Akintoye, there are two other charges against him before Justice Taiwo, while there is a fifth one before Justice Oshodi.
