Cynthia’s murder: Absence of counsel, defendant stall trial

The absence of a counsel and a defendant stalled the trial of four men charged with the murder of Cynthia Osokogu at a Lagos High Court sitting at Igbosere on Friday.
The case, which was for the continuation of cross-examination, was stalled due to the absence of the first defendant’s counsel, Victor Okpara, and the fourth defendant, Nonso Ezike.
Ezike’s lawyer, M. A. Abia-Bassey, told the court that his client was diagnosed as having typhoid and malaria and that he had been receiving treatment.
Justice Olabisi Akinlade, however, pointed out that the adjournment of the case had always been at the instance of the defence.
Akinlade then asked why she should not revoke the fourth defendant’s bail or issue a bench warrant on him, saying that he should have informed the court of his ailment.
She said: “Remember the first and the second defendants in custody are not proven guilty yet.
“Is it because he is enjoying his bail that he refused to show up in court?
“Let him know that the court has the power to revoke his bail.”
The prosecutor, Abiola Adeyinka, however, asked for an adjournment in the absence of the counsel and the defendant.
Akinlade subsequently adjourned the case till May 5 and May 20 for the continuation of cross-examination.
At the last sitting, a prosecution witness, Joseph Edo, had told the court that the alleged murderers of Facebook lover, Cynthia Osokogu, had it all planned a few days before she was killed.
The defendants are Okwumo Nwabufo, 34; Olisaeloka Ezike, 24; Orji Osita, 24; and Ezike Nonso, 25.
Led in evidence by the state Attorney-General, Ade Ipaye, Edo told the court: “It is the defendants’ stock-in-trade to invite women to hotels, drug and rape them.”
He told the court that Nwabufo and Ezike had it in mind to kill Cynthia on her arrival in Lagos.
He said: “From my investigation, I discovered that the first defendant sent the second defendant to Agboju Market to buy the instruments they used for the operation: a chain and a cellotape, a few days before Cynthia was killed.
“The second defendant (Ezike), after getting the items and while still at the market, used his phone to snap them and forwarded the picture to the first defendant (Nwabufo).
“He equally sent Nwabufo a text message from his phone asking if this was the chain and cellotape you asked me to buy and Nwabufo replied Ezike that it will be okay for the job.
“The messages are all in their phones.”
The witness told the court that he also discovered that the third defendant, Osita, who is a pharmacist, aided the primary suspects to commit the crime.
According to him, Osita supplied the suspects with the Rohypnol used in subduing the deceased, before they carried out the killing.
Edo said the fourth defendant, Nonso Ezike, dishonestly received Cynthia’s Blackberry cell phone from his elder brother, who is the second defendant.
He said: “It was discovered that it was not the first phone he (Nonso) bought from the second defendant and he has knowledge of the first and second defendants’ stock-in-trade.
“They specialise in bringing in ladies into hotels and enticing them with one or two things and then rape them.”
Earlier, Akinlade admitted in evidence the confessional statements and video evidence made at the Festac Police Station on August 20, 2012 by Nwabufo and Ezike, admitting the murder.
In a ruling delivered on the admissibility of the statements made by the first and second defendants, after they alleged that their statements were gotten under duress, Akinlade held that their allegations before the court were concocted as there was no evidence to buttress their claims.
She added that from her examination of the confessional statements, the handwritings of the defendant did not show that they were under torture to write them.
She said: “The defendants were questioned in an open place and were also asked by the Area Commander if they made their statements voluntarily, which they attested to in the affirmative.
“Moreover, from the video evidence, the defendants looked well and untortured.
“It was when the Area Commander realised their narration was the same that he requested for a cameraman to video them.”