A LAGOS High Court sitting in Ikeja yesterday sentenced a middle-aged man, Joel Omotosho, to 16-and-a-half years imprisonment for stealing N20 million belonging to his employers.

Justice Adebisi Kayode-Ogunmekan in her judgment dismissed an application filed by the prosecution for the forfeiture of a property he admitted building with the stolen money. The prosecution, led by Mr. M.T. Adewoye, had asked the court to order the forfeiture of the property to his employers, Man Mountain and Company Limited, as compensation.

According to the judge, it was wrong for the prosecution to file such an application after trial had been concluded. She said the prosecution was right to contend that the court could make an order of forfeiture of a stolen property in favour of the complainant when such stolen property was traceable.

Justice Kayode-Ogunmekan said the court could not make such an order under the circumstances of the case as the prosecution failed to follow the conditions specified by law to warrant the court to make such an order.

She averred that the forfeiture application filed after trial had ended and the convict had been granted allocutus by the court, could not stand as the prosecution solely relied on the convict’s confessional statement.

Also, she held that it would be double jeopardy for the convict to forfeit the property after pleading guilty to the charges of stealing and had taken a plea bargain.

Omotoso was found guilty of the 11-count charge of conspiracy and stealing, which he had admitted to before the court on March 24. He was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment on each of the counts, which would however, run concurrently from the day he was first arraigned.

His lawyer, Mr. Adeshina Ogunlana, had earlier filed an application objecting to the forfeiture, describing it as belated, malicious and oppressive and had asked the court to discountenance it.

Ogunlana had argued that the prosecution couldn’t properly oppose the convict’s plea of allocutus, which was a part of his fundamental human rights. He said the forfeiture would amount to double jeopardy for Omotosho, who had spent almost 10 years in Kirikiri Maximum Prison, Lagos, without being sentenced.

According to him, the application violates Sections 516, 390 (9) and 263 of the Criminal Code Cap C17, Vol.2, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2003.

-Guardian

Posted by admin on Jun 9 2011. Filed under Headlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry