By Henry Ojelu
A Lagos State High Court, sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square, yesterday, sentenced a suspended Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Drambi Vandi, to death by hanging, for killing a pregnant Lagos-based lawyer, Omobolanle Raheem, on December 25, 2022.
Justice Ibironke Harrison passed the verdict, after finding Vandi guilty on a one-count murder charge brought against him by the Lagos State Government, contrary to Section 223 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
Vandi, attached to the Ajiwe Police Station in Ajah, Lagos State, shot the pregnant Raheem, while she was returning from an outing with her family members on Christmas Day.
In her judgment, Justice Harrison held that the convict should be hung by the neck until he dies.
The judge said: “I hereby pronounce that you Drambi Vandi, shall be hanged by the neck until death. May God have mercy on you.”
During the trial, the prosecution called 11 witnesses, which included, a pathologist, eight police officers, some of whom were the defendant’s colleagues, and two eye eyewitnesses.
The defence opened its defence on May 16, 2023, and closed on May 31, 2023. Vandi was the only witness who testified in his own defence.
While delivering the judgment, Justice Harrison, analysed the evidence of all the eyewitnesses.
She held that none of the eyewitnesses actually saw the defendant pull the trigger but the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming.
The judge however said that a defendant could be convicted when the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. “The question in the mind of the court is did the prosecution proffer any additional evidence?
“The court finds that the ammunition of the other officers who were on patrol with the defendant remained intact but two of the defendant’s ammunition was missing.”
Harrison said that the defendant had alleged that the shortfall in his ammunition was because it was counted in his absence.
The judge also said that the defendant also insisted that the bullet tendered in court was not his own.
The court, however, held that the defendant constituted himself as a ballistician pathologist without tendering a certificate to that effect.
Harrison therefore dismissed the evidence of the defendant as to the bullet used.
Justice Harrison held that the prosecution proved its case beyond every reasonable doubt that there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence that it was the convict who shot the gun that killed the deceased.
She held: “The death of the deceased was instantaneous. There is no other explanation, it was the gunshot that shattered the side glass and pierced the victim’s chest.
“It was the defendant who had an AK-47 riffle whose ammunition was missing after the armourer counted it.”
The judge further held that the defendant did not say that he pointed the gun to force or scare the people in the vehicle to obey the order and park the vehicle.
She said that the defendant did not also say that the shooting was an accidental discharge which would have earned him a smaller sentence of manslaughter.
“Therefore, the defendant is found guilty of the one count charge and sentenced to death by hanging he should be hung until he dies,” she held.
Olakitan Bolu Agbaje, the counsel representing Raheem’s family expressed her satisfaction with the verdict stating that though, it could not bring the dead back, the judgement would give the family the hope that the Convict has been brought to book and would get his deserved punishment.
Meanwhile, Adetokunbo Odutola, the lead defence Counsel, said that he would know the next step to take when he receives the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgement.
