Three allged thugs, Kofi James, Kofi Kenneth and Aondona Uzer, were on Monday remanded at the correctional service centre for robbery and failed attempt to kill a Makurdi businessman.
The Chief Magistrate, Mr Vincent Kor, who turned down the plea of the defendants ordered that they be remanded in prison custody.
Kor adjourned the matter till November 2 for further mention.
The defendants were charged with criminal conspiracy, armed robbery, attempted culpable homicide and mischief.
According to the Prosecution counsel, Sgt. Jonah Uleru, the offences contravened Sections 6(b) and 1(I) (2) (a)(b) of the Robbery and Firearms Act, 2004 and 329 of the Penal Code Law of Benue, 2004.
Earlier, Uleru told the court that on September 8th, a petition written by one Suleyol Nkaaga of No. 13, Gbojile Street, Aliade, was received at the Police CIID, Makurdi, on the same date.
He said that the complainant, in the petition alleged that sometime in August, she bought 96 bags of oranges in a bush in Aĺiade valued at N369,600 and loaded them in a lorry.
The prosecutor said on getting to the main road, immediately after the Aliade General Hospital, about 10 young men blocked the road with logs of wood.
He disclosed that the aggressors demanded N20,000 from the complainant before the lorry could pass.
Uleru said the complainant and her husband, Simon, pleaded with the men to accept N2,500 and allow them to pass but they refused.
According to him, one of the men, Amoo Zafefa, picked a knife and stabbed the complainant’s husband in the stomach.
The prosecutor said that after the dastard act, Zafefa forcefully collected his victim’s bag containing N100,000, unloaded all the oranges and destroyed them.
The prosecutor said the defendants were arrested during a raid by the police while Zafefa and six others are still at large.
(NAN)
