An Osun State High Court sitting in Ikirun presided over by Justice Jide Falola on Thursday sentenced three armed robbers involved in the Ikirun bank robbery to death by hanging.
The convicts are Nuhu Jimoh, Ndubisi David and Aderibigbe Oluwasenu. The accused persons were on 29th June 2017 arraigned on a 10-count charge of conspiracy, armed robbery, murder, illegal possession of firearms and others, contrary to Section 6(b), 1(1) & (2)(a) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act, Cap R11 L.F.N, 2004, Section 319 of the Criminal Code Law Cap. 34 Laws of Osun State, 2002, and Section 3 of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act, Cap R11 L.F.N, 2004, respectively.
In his proof of the charges, the prosecution counsel from the Ministry of Justice, Barrister Biodun Badiora called five witnesses and tendered about 30 Exhibits.
The 1st defendant Nuhu Jimoh testified in his own defence, while 2nd and 3rd defendants Ndubisi David and Adeibigbe OuwaSeun called three witnesses each, including themselves.
It would be recalled that on 12th February 2016, at about 3:30 pm, armed men, in a coordinated bank robbery, attacked three first-generation banks, situated along the same street in Ikirun, Osun State, simultaneously.
The combined team of policemen from Iragbiji Police Division, Ikirun Police patrol team and Special Anti-robbery Squad responded to distress calls from the scene. On getting to the scene, a gun duel ensued between the armed robbers and the policemen. The armed robbery gang was dislodged making them run away in different directions.
Investigations revealed that seven members of the armed gang were killed by Police at the scene of the crime while some others escaped with gunshots injuries. Almost 32 people lost their lives to the incident but only four corpses were deposited at the mortuary, including two bank officials and two policemen on bank guard duty.
Seven assorted ammunitions, which included AK-47 rifles, Israeli and Russia made guns brought to the scene by the armed gang and a cash sum of #7,486,300.00k stolen from the banks were recovered by the Police.
In his judgement, Justice Falola sentenced them to death by hanging, and forfeited guns recovered from gang to the Nigeria Police, just as he forfeited money recovered at the scene of the bank robbery to Osun State government.
