Suspected kidnapping kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, a.k.a Evans has filed an application seeking to be released on bail and for his case to be given an accelerated hearing.
Evans filed the application at the resumed hearing of trial on conspiracy and kidnapping at the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja, on Friday.
In his argument, the defence counsel for the first and second defendants, Olukoya Ogungbeje said that it was the law that when charges are amended, the proof of evidence attached to the charges goes with it.
He argued that as it stands now, there is no proof of evidence that will follow the amended charges. He said that it was unconstitutional in a criminal trial to proceed without first presenting the evidence to the defendants to prepare their defense; and as it is now, the prosecution lacks proof of evidence to go with the new charge since it had died with the earlier charges.
Another ground of their application for the court to quash the matter was that the prosecution had also presented same matters before another court, which amounts to forum shopping and abuse of court process.
But the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms. Titilayo Shitta-Bay, described the bail application, seeking accelerated hearing filed alongside an application seeking to quash the charges as conflicting, confusing and an abuse of court processes.
At the previous sitting, Evans had made a U-turn as he entered a plea of ‘not guilty’ when he was re-arraigned on a two-count amended charge of conspiracy and kidnapping.
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