The Lagos State High Court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square has sentenced ASP Drambi Vandi, the police officer who killed a lawyer, Bolanle Raheem, to death by hanging.
The presiding judge, Justice Ibironke Harrison, while delivering judgement on Monday, October 9, 2023, convicted Vandi of a one-count charge of murder.
“The court finds the defendant guilty on one count of murder. You will be hanged by the neck till you are dead,” the judge held.
While delivering judgment, Justice Harrison said that none of the eyewitness actually saw the defendant pull the trigger.
She, however, held that circumstantial evidence was overwhelming to prove that Vandi murdered Raheem.
According to the judge, a defendant can be convicted when circumstantial evidence is overwhelming.
The judge said: “The question in the mind of the court is: Did the prosecution provide 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 were 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 noted that Vandi testified that the bullet tendered in court was not his, saying, however, that Vandi constituted himself as a ballistician pathologist without tendering a certificate to that effect.
She, therefore, dismissed the evidence.
“The court finds that the forensic expert and the medical doctor’s evidence confirm the circumstantial evidence that the defendant had the opportunity to shoot the victim and that the victim was shot and died from the gunshot.
“Every eyewitness heard the loud noise and passers-by shouted in Yoruba Language (oti pa eyan) meaning: you have killed someone,” she said.
Harrison held that the prosecution proved its case beyond every reasonable doubt that it was the convict who shot the gun that killed the deceased.
“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,” she held.
She also held that the defendant did not say that he pointed the gun to force or scare people in the vehicle to obey order and park the vehicle.
She added that the defendant did not say that the shooting was accidental 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 until he dies,” she held.
The court had, in July 2023, fixed today to deliver judgement after the adoption of final written addresses by parties in the suit.
Vandi was arraigned on January 16 on a count charge of murder but he pleaded not guilty.
The Lagos State Government alleged that the police officer shot the lawyer in the chest at Ajah Roundabout on the Lekki expressway in Lagos State on December 25, 2022.
It stated that the murder contravenes Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
A police Inspector, Matthew Ameh, who was a colleague of Vandi, had told the court how the policeman shot the deceased on Christmas Day.
Ameh told the court that on December 25, 2022, he was posted to Ajah Under Bridge with the defendant (Vandi) and another officer, Inspector Dimini.
Ameh, who said he had been working with the police since 2001, stated that he worked at the Lagos State Police Command and was attached to the Ajah Division.
The witness disclosed that the Divisional Police Officer had instructed them to go and protect lives and property, adding that their duty on December 25, at Ajah Under Bridge, was to conduct a stop-and-search operation.
He said: “We were armed while conducting our duty but we were instructed not to use our arms unless someone’s life or our lives were in danger.
“As we were at our duty post, Insp Dimini was in front, I was in the middle while Vandi was behind me.
“There was a Toyota car with no number plate which Inspector Dimini tried to flag down but it didn’t stop. I also flagged it down, it didn’t stop. The next thing I heard was a gunshot.
“I looked back and saw the screen of the car falling down. The next thing: a dark woman jumped down from the vehicle, held the defendant, shouting oga you have killed my sister.”
