A 27-year-old trader, Muritala Najimu, has been arraigned before an Akure Magistrates’ Court for allegedly kidnapping his ex-girlfriend.
Najimu, who is on trial before the court on two counts, was alleged to have committed the offence on September 24, 2022 around 8:30pm at lkare Akoko, headquarters of Akoko North East Local Government Area of Ondo State.
Martins Olowofeso, the police prosecutor, informed the court that the defendant had committed a felony, to wit kidnapping.
He said that the defendant abducted Omowumi Tiamiyu and took her to an undisclosed location while armed with a gun and other hostile weapons.
However, the defendant entered a non guilty plea.
When the magistrate asked Najimu where he was on the day the woman went missing, he replied that he was home with some neighbors, including his new girlfriend, who came over to watch a movie in his house.
Before she vanished, the defendant acknowledged that Omowumi Tiamiyu, 22, was his ex-girlfriend.
He claimed that because she enjoyed pursuing and having affairs with several guys, they occasionally fought.
“We were both living together with the knowledge of her mother. But since I noticed she doesn’t want to change her bad behaviour, I asked her to go back to her mother’s house, because I don’t want her to implicate me. And since then, I have not set my eyes on her.”
In order to keep the defendant in custody pending the Director of Public Prosecutions’ advice, the prosecutor filed an application (DPP).
The defendant’s counsel, Sunday Ojigbo, requested that the court dismiss the remand application made against his client since there was insufficient information to support it.
Ojigbo consequently pleaded with the court to grant his client the most lenient bail conditions.
In her decision, Magistrate R.A. Olumilua granted the defendant bail in the amount of N400,000 with two sureties in the same amount.
The court set a hearing date of November 23, 2022 and stipulated that one of the sureties must be a relative of the defendant.
