An Iyaganku chief magistrate, Justice P. O. Adetuyibi, has ordered the remand of 15 suspected kidnappers and killers of travellers at Abolongo correctional facility in Oyo, Oyo State.
The suspects were said to have killed the travellers at Onigaari area of Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
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Counsel to the defendants, Olajide Adewole appealed to the court to temper justice with mercy and ensure the suspects are remanded at Agodi correctional facility in Ibadan but the judge declined, saying there was no space in Agodi but Abolongo.
The suspects were charged with a four-count charge of conspiracy, murder, kidnapping and unlawful use of firearms.
The magistrate, who did not take the plea of the defendants made by their counsel, ordered them to be remanded at the Abolongo Correctional Centre in Oyo town.
Daily Trust reports that on January 8 this year, a commercial driver, identified as Oluwatosin Aruwajoye was killed in the attack, Ibrahim Tiamiyu, was shot in the thigh while five other passengers were abducted.
The suspects are; Bashiru Abubakar, Babuga Umaru, Umaru Shehu Tambaya, Shagari Mohammed, Ibrahim Abubakar, Adamu Abdullahi, Mohammed Umaru, Abdullahi Abubakar, Aliyu Umar, Haruna Isah, Sanda Bawu, Umaru Faruq Mohammed, Aliyu Abubakar, Abubakar Siddiku and Isiaku Mohammed.
Earlier, the prosecutor, Inspector Folake Ewe, had told the court that the suspects and others currently at large allegedly attacked travellers at about 5:30pm on January 8 this year at Onigari village along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
She said the suspects and others now at large, on the said date, place and time in aforementioned magistrate district did unlawfully cause the death of one Oluwatoyin Anwajoye by firing a gunshot at his car that hits him on his forehead and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 319 of criminal code cap 38 Volume II Laws of Oyo State of Nigeria.
Justice P. O. Adetuyibi, therefore, adjourned the case till March 30 for further hearing.
