The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal has affirmed the judgment of a Lagos State High Court sentencing an armed robbery convict, Michael Akubaye, to a 14-year jail term with hard labour.

Akubaye was, in 2010, tried before Justice S.O. Nwaka of a Lagos State High Court for allegedly robbing one Emmanuel Uba of N6,500.

The prosecutor accused him of committing the offence at N0. 8 Bale Street, Boundary Ajegunle in Lagos State.

According to the prosecution, the offence was in contravention of Section 403A of the Criminal Code Law of Lagos State, Cap 32 Vol. 2, 1994.

Akubaye was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment in Kirikiri Prisons in Lagos.

But dissatisfied with the judgment, the convict through his lawyer, Mr. Yemi Omodele, went to the Appeal Court seeking to upturn the judgment.

In his notice of appeal dated April 21, 2010, Akubaye contended that his conviction was done in error as the law against which he was charged had been repealed at the time of his conviction.

He also challenged the judgment on the ground that the evidence tendered in court by the prosecution’s witnesses was contradictory and did not support his conviction.

In response to the appeal, the prosecution had gone ahead to file a cross-appeal, wherein it urged the appellate court to not only uphold Akubaye’s conviction but to convert the 14-year jail term to death sentence as stipulated by the law for armed robbery.

The prosecution argued that since it was able to prove its case, the lower court ought to have sentenced Akubaye to death.

However, in a judgment delivered by a panel of three judges sitting in Court 2 of the appellate court in Lagos, Akubaye’s appeal was dismissed and his sentence upheld.

The appellate court also dismissed the cross-appeal filed by the respondent.

The judges observed that though the respondent had convinced the lower court that the robbery actually took place it did not tender before the lower court the gun used by the convict during the operation.

The panel added that the prosecution failed to sway the mind of the court with its claim that the gun was recovered from the convict but later got missing in their custody.

Click here to read from source.