A Lagos High Court, Ikeja yesterday ruled there is no proof that the alleged kidnap kingpin Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike a.k.a (Evans) was tortured by members of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Intelligence Response Team and the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The trial judge, Justice Hakeem Oshodi while delivering ruling on the admissibility of Evans’ confessional statement of dated June 11, 12017 held that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria made no requirement that statements to the police must be in a specific form.
Evans is standing trial alongside Uche Amadi, Ogechi Uchechukwu, Chilaka Ifeanyi, Okwuchukwu Nwachukwu and Victor Aduba.
They were arraigned on two count charges of conspiracy and kidnap of the Chief Executive Officer of Maydon Pharmaceutical Limited, Donatus Dunu, from whose family allegedly they collected 223,000 Euro (N100m) as ransom.
Evans and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to all the charges.Evans had claimed that his confessional statement to the police was not obtained voluntarily, alleged that police officers tortured him and made him witness executions in a bid to get him to admit to his crimes. This was led to trial within trial to ascertain whether he was tortured or not
The judge further held that contrary to Evans claimed that he was tortured, the videotaped confession played in the court last year October 26, 2018 shows no proof that Evans was tortured to provide details of his alleged misdeeds.
