A Lagos State Excessive Court docket in Ikeja on Thursday convicted and sentenced a business bus driver, Elijah Shokoya, to 12 years imprisonment for killing an officer of the Lagos State Visitors Administration Company.
Justice Oyindamola Ogala sentenced Shokoya after discovering him responsible of the offence of manslaughter.
The decide held that the prosecution had proved past cheap doubt the one rely of the manslaughter of the LASTMA officer, Olawale Akinmade, who died on Wednesday, January 27, 2012.
The decide stated, “The prosecution has established past cheap doubt that the deceased died, that the illegal acts of the Shokoya induced the loss of life of the deceased, and that the acts of the convict which ultimately induced the loss of life of the deceased have been with the information that damage or grievous bodily hurt was the possible consequence.”
The Lagos State Authorities had accused the convict of flattening Akinmade with a blue and black Opel house bus with quantity plate AAA 74 GG whereas controlling site visitors, and he suffered accidents to his head and physique.
The prosecution, who stated that the tragic incident occurred at Demurin Road junction inward Mile 12, said that the offence contravened Part 224 of the Legal Regulation of Lagos State, 2015, and is punishable underneath Part 229.
The convict was arraigned 9 years after the incident on June 23, 2021, and pleaded not responsible to the one-count cost.
Delivering her judgement, Justice Ogala held that the only real subject for willpower was whether or not the totality of the proof earlier than the courtroom, of the prosecution, had efficiently proved the cost of involuntary manslaughter most well-liked towards Shokoya to allow it to convict him thereof.
The decide identified that the place of the regulation was certainly properly settled that the burden of proof in felony circumstances rests on the prosecution, and the usual of proof is proved past cheap doubt.
She held, “As regards the loss of life of Akinmade Samson Olawale, there appears to be no dispute as to the loss of life of the deceased.
“The testimonies of the primary prosecution witness, Aderonke Malik, testified that she noticed Shokoya pushing the deceased into the entrance of his automobile.
“Her testimony is that she ran there asking Shokoya to cease the automobile, however he didn’t, and that the deceased stored on banging the bonnet of the automobile to cease.”
She testified that Shokoya didn’t cease till he knocked down the deceased.
“Additionally, on this instantaneous case, it’s instructive that the Investigating Police Officer additionally gave direct proof of what she noticed, heard and investigated. The courtroom, subsequently, finds that the proof can’t be faulted as steered by the defence on this occasion.
“It have to be identified that proof past cheap doubt isn’t proof past each shadow of doubt. The diploma of proof amounting to cheap doubt needn’t attain certainty, however it is going to carry a excessive diploma of likelihood.
“As soon as the elements of the offence the accused is charged with are proved, that constitutes proof past an affordable doubt, and for him to be entitled to the advantage of the doubt, the doubt have to be a real and cheap one arising from some proof earlier than the courtroom.
“The Honourable Court docket, subsequently, finds Elijah Shokoya responsible of the one rely cost of involuntary manslaughter he stands confronted with and is accordingly convicted.
“I hereby sentence Shokoya to 12 years imprisonment from the day of judgment,” Justice Ogala held.