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Nigeria: Counsel Urges Court to Reverse Conviction of Accused
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Leadership (Abuja)
4 June 2008
Posted to the web 4 June 2008
A Gudu, Abuja, Area Court will on June 9 decide whether or not to review the conviction of an accused person jailed after a summary trial.
Sunday Aja had pleaded guilty on April 15 in a case of criminal misappropriation of N15.5 milion belonging to one Anaeba Okekenta.
He was sentenced on April 30 to two years, three months in jail.
Aja's co-accused, Adekunle Oyinloye, pleaded not guilty.A lawyer, however, filed an application before the court Monday and asked the judge to review the conviction.
Mr Niyi Oyinloye said Aja was not well informed about the offence.
He also said that Aja pleaded guilty to the charge because "he was misled into believing that he would be given an option of fine".
Oyinloye added that the police First Information Report (FIR) which categorised the offence as "criminal misappropriation" was not proven at the trial.
Oyinloye cited Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code as authority that bail "can still be granted to a convict".
"We submit that this is a great error and in consequence, the conviction and sentence should be reversed as the appellant would have pleaded otherwise,'' Oyinloye said.
But police prosecutor Emmanuel Adikwu opposed the application on the ground that the sum of N100,000 was recovered from Aja.
He argued that Aja was arraigned on April 15 on the charges of "joint act, criminal breach of trust and criminal misappropriation which were understood by the two accused persons and Aja pleaded guilty to them.
"The first accused person, Adekunle Oyinloye, was granted bail because he pleaded not guilty while Aja was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment," Adikwu said.
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Adikwu said the court did not pass sentence until April 30, 15 days after Aja had pleaded guilty and had enough chance to change his plea if he had wished. (NAN).
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