After eight years of imprisonment, six persons accused of killing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial aspirant, Mr Funsho Williams, were, on Monday, set free by a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere.
Bulama Kolo, Musa Maina, David Cassidy, Tunani Sonoma, Mustapha Kayode and Ikponmwose Imariabie regained freedom after Justice Ebenezer Adebajo held that the evidence adduced by the prosecution to prove the two-count charge of conspiracy and murder against them was “weak and superficial.”
The defendants, it will be recalled, had told the court on June 9 that the prosecution had not made out a prima facie case to warrant calling them to defend themselves.
A prima facie case is made out in a criminal trial where the evidence presented is sufficient to secure a conviction, unless it is successfully rebutted by the defence.
In a no-case-to-answer submission, dated May 20, the defence counsel, Okezie Agbara, had told Justice Adebajo that the case against his clients must collapse because it was built on unfounded suspicion.
An analysis of the pieces of evidence adduced by the state at the trial, he had submitted, showed that they were, at best, circumstantial.
For a court of law to base conviction on circumstantial evidence, he had said, it must be of a compelling and irresistible nature to show that the accused persons and no one else were responsible for the crime.
“There has been no legally admissible evidence against the defendants,” Okezie argued, urging Justice Adebajo to hold that the prosecution failed to link any of the defendants with Williams’ murder.
Relying on Section 243 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State, the defence counsel urged the court to dismiss the charge and set his clients free.
But the prosecution opposed the application, asking the court to strike it out.
Led by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Mrs Idowu Alakija, the prosecution said it had made out a prima facie case enough to warrant the defendants to enter a defence.
After entertaining arguments from the parties, Justice Adebajo adjourned till June 30 for ruling on the no-case application.
Ruling on the no-case application when the case came up on Monday, the judge upheld the defence argument, saying the prosecution failed to make out a prima facie case of conspiracy to commit murder against the defendants.
The state, the judge said, failed to establish the fact that the defendants conspired to kill Williams.
While the prosecution alleged that the fourth to sixth defendants, policemen deployed to provide security for Williams, made calls with their co-defendants with the deceased’s mobile phone, Adebajo said the state, however, failed to produce the call logs of the communication in court.
The prosecution, Justice Adebajo held, also failed to show that the mobile phone actually belonged to Williams.
Describing the evidence in proof of the charge of conspiracy to murder as circumstantial, the judge ruled that the court could not convict the defendants on a case that was “weak and superficial.”
On the count of murder, the judge said the prosecution was able to show that Williams was actually killed. Justice Adebajo, however, said the prosecution could not create a nexus between the crime and the defendants.
Reviewing the evidence of the pathologist, Professor John Obafunwa, who said Williams was strangled to death, Justice Adebajo said: “I am satisfied that the deceased died, but there was nothing to show those responsible for his death.
“In the final analysis, the evidence is manifestly unreliable for the court to call upon the defendants to defend themselves.”
The defendants reacted differently as soon as the verdict was handed down.
While some thanked God for giving them victory, others wept, recounting what eight years of trial had cost them.
Imariabe Ikponmwose, leader of the police team guarding Williams at the time of the murder, could not be comforted, as he wept uncontrollably.
Over the eight years the trial lasted, he said, the Nigeria Police sacked him, his wife left him and his ordeal caused his mother a stroke that had confined her to the hospital.
His colleague, Mustapha Kayode, said he was sacked, lost his three-month-old daughter, who never had the opportunity of knowing him, while his mother became blind as a result of crying.
Their lawyer, Agbara, who said he did the case pro bono (without legal fees), said it would now be just for the police to reinstate Ikponmwose, Kayode and Tunani Sonoma, who were sacked over the incident.
Bulama Kolo, Musa Maina, David Cassidy, Tunani Sonoma, Mustapha Kayode and Ikponmwose Imariabiewere first arraigned on March 1, 2013 before Justice Adebajo on a two-count charge of conspiracy and murder of Williams at his 34A, Corporation Drive, Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi home, on July 27, 2006.
