Judge warns public against dropping charms in courtroom 

Justice Hakeem Oshodi of a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, has warned the members of the public against dropping charms in his courtroom amid the trial of five men charged with the murder of one Ifeanyi Godfrey Etunmuse.

The judge raised the alarm that talismans were found in the courtroom after the last hearing of the murder case. Referring to the charm as ‘property’, he warned the courtroom audience: “Do not leave your property here again. It doesn’t work anymore.”

The state government had filed charge against the five defendants; Atunrase Sodiq Omolabi, Shittu Michael Olawale, Olaide Opeifa, Olanrewaju Adebiyi aka Maja, and Jamiu Omosanya aka Orobo, for attempted murder and the murder of Etunmuse at Western Funeral Home, Ijede Ikorodu.

The prosecution also alleged that the suspects also cut off the wrist of one Femi Onamade, the younger brother to Tosin Onamade.

Earlier in the trial, the defendants’ counsel, Mr. Olanrewaju Ajanaku continued with the cross-examination of the prosecution witness, Babatunde Olayinka.

Ajanaku asked the witness (Olayinka) whether he could say that the defendants had a hand in the attack on the deceased. He also asked him if he was able to get a view of the compound of the local politician and funeral services businessman, Oluwatosin Onamade from his hiding place following the alleged attack.

The witness in his response told the court that he hid himself in the cemetery and lay down for a while to hide from a group of men that he saw wielding machetes at the Onamade compound on the day of the incident on April 16, 2021.

Olayinka recounted that as he hid from the machete-wielding men, he turned around and saw a dead body beside him but he could not say emphatically that the defendants had anything to do with the body.

The counsel to the fourth defendant, Mr. Mahmud Adesina also cross-examined the witness, asking him whether he had told the court earlier that Femi Onamade, a relative of Oluwatosin Onamade, was the one who knew the defendants in person.

The witness affirmed that it was Femi that knew the defendants and Oluwatosin, who can identify them.

The prosecution counsel, Mr. M. T. Adewoye thereafter reexamined the witness and asked him to clarify what he meant when he told the court that he could not identify the defendants.

Olayinka explained to the court that he indeed saw the machete-wielding men, when they came into the compound. The prosecution counsel therefore prayed the court to issue a witness summons for Femi Onamade to appear before the court.

The trial judge granted his request, issued witness summons for Onamade and subsequently adjourned further hearing on the case to February 19, 2024.

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