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One year after, trial of Lekan Shonde, alleged wife killer, starts

‘DPP says he has a case to answer,’ Counsel Barr. Muhammed

Alleged wife killer, Lekan Shonde’s lawyer, Barrister I. B. Muhammed, has confirmed to encomium.ng that the report of the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) validates the alleged murder charge pronounced on  his client by Mrs. I. O. Adelaja of Ebute Meta Magistrate Court, Lagos. This pronouncement is in line with the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, 246 (1) of Lagos state as released by the DPP.

He added he’s only waiting for his proper arraignment at the Federal High Court for the beginning of the case.

Speaking with encomium.ng on Thursday, May 25, 2017, Barrister Muhammed said, “Yes, the DPP report is out already. The next thing now is to procceed to the Federal High Court which is what we’re waiting for. And we don’t know how soon that’s going to be.”

Asked to oblige us with the content of the report, the legal practitioner reacted, “Nothing much. The report only says Lekan Shonde has a case to answer. And that’s all.”

Meanwhile, the outcome of the autopsy carried out by pathologists from Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, and submitted to Lagos State Police Command on Tuesday, May 17, 2016, confirmed that Ronke Shonde was killed by a blow to the head.

It was on the account of the autopsy report that Shonde was charged for murder and has since been remanded in Ikoyi Prisons, Lagos, for the last one year, waiting for the DPP advice as his case demanded.

 

HOW HIS JOURNEY TO IKOYI PRISONS STARTED

Lekan Shonde was first docked on Friday, May 20, 2017, before Mrs. I. O. Adelaja  of  Ebute Meta Magistrate Court, Lagos, and was consequently sent to Ikoyi Prisons for the alleged murder of his wife and mother of his two children, Ronke at their Tiemo Close, Egbeda-Idimu, Lagos home on Thursday, May 5, 2016.

The case was adjourned to Friday, June 24, 2016, but hearing didn’t take place.

Shonde’s situation was compounded as the case was again adjourned to Friday, July 8, 2016, as the Director of Public Prosecution didn’t present the case file in court. And even on that July 8, the case still didn’t go on since the file was yet to be ready.

He has since been cooling off in Ikoyi Prisons, coping well with other inmates.

Shonde has spent exactly one year behind the bars, waiting to either be convicted or discharged and acquitted.

But it seemed luck wasn’t on his side as the report of the DPP was delayed which eventually kept him in the cell the more,  until recently when the report was made available to his lawyer, Barrister Muhammed which will enable him continue with the case at the Federal High Court.

And according to the lawyer, the time for that is yet to be known.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, May 25, encomium.ng’s visited Shonde’s Tiemo, Egbeda-Idimu, Lagos rented apartment. And we discovered that the flat is being occupied by another tenant.

One of the residents  in the area who spoke to us under the condition of anonymity said, “Another person is occupying  the apartment. And he moved in a while back.  Since the police had come there for investigation when the incident happened and the outcome of the investigation had nothing to do with the landlord, he has no reason whatsoever leaving the apartment unoccupied. I think their families might have come to move out their belongings, but I can’t say the exact time that was done.”

Meanwhile, when encomium.ng contacted Shonde’s lawyer on it, he quickly reacted, “I don’t know anything about that.”

 

-TADE ASIFAT for encomium.ng

Encomium

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