Mr Amobi Nzelu, the new lawyer representing convicted kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, aka Evans, yesterday said he had applied to have him produced in court for a £223,000 ransom case.
Nzelu said he wrote a letter to the Igbosere High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) asking that the judge, Justice Kayode Ogunjobi, direct the Comptroller of Prisons to produce Evans in court.
On February 25, 2022, the court’s Ikeja division sentenced Evans and his co-defendants Uchenna Amadi and Okuchukwu Nwachukwu, to life imprisonment.
Justice Hakeem Oshodi handed out the sentence to the trio after convicting them for conspiracy and kidnapping of the Managing Director of Maydon Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Donatus Duru.
The kidnap occurred between February 14 and April 12, 2017.
Duru, in 2018, filed a civil suit before Justice Ogunjobi seeking to recover the £223,000 he paid as ransom to Evans while in captivity for 88 days.
Duru is also demanding the sum of N50million as damages at 20 per cent interest.
But the case has suffered several adjournments following, among others, Evans’ failure to attend the proceedings.
At the last adjournment on June 29, Justice Ogunjobi, who had already imposed costs of N2.5million on Evans, threatened to impose another fine on him, for delaying the case.
Upon resumption of proceedings yesterday, Evans was, again, absent.
defendant’s applications to change his counsel and to amend his statement of defence.
Credit : THE NATION.
