Courts grant bail to 67 suspected kidnappers
Idris Ahmed, Lokoja
Two Chief Magistrate courts sitting in Lokoja have granted bail to 67 suspects standing trial for attempted armed robbery and kidnapping.
Already 65 of them have spent one week in Federal Prisons, Koton-Karfe and Okene with exception of the two juveniles who were granted bail so as to be arraigned at the state family Court.
The Chief Magistrate of court 1,Lokoja Levi Animoku, who is handling a batch of 34 cases including the two juveniles said the accused had undertaken to comply with bail conditions.
Animoku said perusing the dispositions of the various affidavits presented by counsels to the accused that they (accused) were presumed innocent until the contrary was proved, pointed out that bail was not a discharge or acquittal of the accused of the charges preferred against them saying, “gladly enough, the prosecution has given voice in favour of the bail of the accused persons.
“Each accused is released on bail in the sum of N20,000 with a reliable surety in like sum.”
The surety, Animoku added, must be either a Civil Servant or a staff of Dangote Cement Company or a notable businessman with evidence of means and resident in Lokoja or it’s environs.
Also at Lokoja Chief Magistrate Court II, the presiding Chief Magistrate, Alhassan Hussaini granted bail to another set of 33 suspects alleged to have criminally conspired and attempted to commit armed robbery and kidnapping.
It would be recalled that the accused were arrested by a combined team of Police, the Army, Department of State Service (DSS) and National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) during a raid in Obajana on October 10.
According to the Police First Information Report (FIR), the combined team of security agencies on a tip-off arrested the accused persons in Obajana area of Lokoja.
The prosecution alleged that the accused and others now at large conspired, formed and belonged to a gang of thieves who were responsible for several thefts, robbery and kidnapping operations within Obajana-Kabba and it’s environs.
The Police further alleged that the accused were seen at their criminal hideouts at Obajana while preparing to carry out robbery and kidnapping operations within Obajana and it’s environs.
The prosecution further said that a combined team of the security operatives swung into action and stormed the various criminal hideouts where the suspects were all arrested while others escaped.
Other members of the alleged gang who escaped the October 10 arrest, according to the police, at about 5pm on October 23, in a reprisal attack, killed two policemen, Sgt Gini John and Inspector Ezekiel Negedu.
The hoodlums were also alleged to have carted away AK-47riffles belonging to the slain policemen and kidnapped one Portuguese national, Jose Machada to an unknown destination.
