Justice Ibironke Harrison of a Lagos High Court has sentenced a police officer, Darambi Vandi, to death by hanging for shooting dead a Lagos-based lawyer, Mrs Omobolanle Raheem, on the last Christmas Day.
Justice Ibironke Harrison sentenced the ASP after finding him guilty of the murder of the pregnant lawyer.
Harrison held that the prosecution was able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
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The judge also held that the convict shot the deceased at close range.
The Lagos State government had arraigned Vandi before the court for allegedly shooting the 41-year-old pregnant lawyer to death at the Ajah under-bridge checkpoint on December 25, 2022.
During the trial, the prosecution called eleven witnesses including 8 police officers and tenders 27 exhibits in evidence, while the convict solely testified in his defence.
The defendant however pleaded not guilty to the one-count charge of murder contrary to Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
In his application on the no-case submission, Vandi had asked the court to dismiss the suit and discharge him claiming that he had no case to answer.
In his arguments, the defence counsel, Adetokunbo Odutola, told the court to note among other things that none of the eyewitnesses saw the defendant shoot and that the ballistic report of the gun allegedly fired expressly stated that the bullet could not be linked with any of the firearms recovered from the police officers at the scene.
Oduntola who argued that the pathologist who testified mentioned that the bullet penetrated from the left through the armpit while the prosecution stated that the deceased was shot in the chest.
