Appeal Court upturns death penalty on robbery suspect

After nine years on death row, the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, has quashed and set aside the death sentence handed  down to one John Asuquo by Justice Sedoten  Ogunsanya of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja Division, for alleged conspiracy and armed robbery.

In the unanimous decision delivered by Justice Muhammad Sirajo, the appellate court held that the prosecution failed to prove the conspiracy charge to commit armed robbery against the appellant.

Other members of the panel, Justice Jimi Bada (presided) and Justice Folashade Ojo, aligned with the lead judgment.

The crux of the case of the prosecution at the lower court was that on July 5, 2015, at 2:45 a.m., a group of about four young men broke into and raided a house at No. 2B, Lawal Court, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

Some of the occupants of the premises, including Wasiu Lawal and Emmanuel Egu, designated in the lower court as PW1 and PW2, respectively, were robbed at gunpoint.

The night marauders reportedly fled the scene when the call for early morning Muslim prayer for Ramadan was made at about 3:00 a.m. Though pursued by some of the occupants of the said premises, the fleeing robbers escaped when they scaled a fence into an estate behind Alade Market at Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos.

At 4.45 a.m., a search was conducted by the victims of the raid to the spot where the robbers escaped, and the appellant was found within the vicinity with a bag containing two of the laptops stolen from the occupants of the premises together with some number of expended cartridges.

He was, after that, handed over to the police, where he volunteered some extrajudicial statements tendered in evidence during the trial at the lower court.

The appellant stated that on the day of the robbery at about 5:30 a.m., he left his house at Agege Motor Road on his way to work at Agidingbi. He dropped off at Ikeja-Along and boarded a motorbike to Allen junction.

He stated further that at Allen Avenue junction, he decided to take a shortcut through the Alade Market within the vicinity where he found the two laptops on the floor, which he thought were scraps.

According to the appellant, when he discovered the laptops were functional, he took them, intending to hand them over to the police. However, before he could do that, he was accosted by a mob who nearly lynched him before the police rescued him.

At the conclusion of the trial, the lower court, in its considered judgment, convicted the appellant for the offence of conspiracy and armed robbery and was accordingly sentenced to death.

Dissatisfied, the appellant appealed against the judgment and urged the court to allow the appeal and set aside the lower court’s decision.

In his lead judge, Justice Sirajo held that from the evidence on the printed record, the prosecution witnesses were not “ad idem” that the expended cartridge was found in the appellant’s bag.

“How, then, did the trial court become satisfied with the evidence of the prosecution witnesses when a section of them contradicted the other section with respect to the expended cartridge?” the judge pointed out.

“This, to say the least, is an apparent departure from the legal requirement and abdication of the duty of doing even-handed justice in cases of this nature, which involves Capital punishment. ’The prosecution’s case was far from being proven in the instant appeal. Conspicuous doubt, which is not unreasonable, permeates the case before the learned trial Judge, who, on his part, was less careful a judex.”

Sirajo added, ‘’In view of the foregoing therefore, I find the instant appeal meritorious, deserving to be and is hereby allowed. The decision of Ogunsaya, J., of the High Court of Lagos State delivered on February, 22, 2022 in Charge No. ID/3006C/2016, is hereby set aside, and the conviction and sentence passed on the appellant quashed accordingly. The appellant is consequently discharged and acquitted.’’