Ten
years after they were charged, the long hands of the law yesterday caught up
with five policemen as they were sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by an Ikeja
High Court for robbing some businessmen of their lorry loaded with
clothing materials.
Handing down his judgment, Justice Joseph
Oyewole convicted the policemen – Bestman Denner, Musa Mohammed, Peter Enidiok,
Godwin Williams and Emmanuel Ajogbor of the charge of conspiracy and robbery
pressed against them.
The judge, found the policemen guilty,
having established their involvement in the offences.
Oyewole said their involvement in the
robbery incident as security officers make their case worrisome.
He therefore sentenced them to imprisonment
which would run concurrently, starting from when they were arrested on March 3,
2005 and remanded in prison custody.
Oyewole said, “I hold that there is
sufficient evidence to conspiracy as to commit robbery as charged. I hereby
convict each of them accordingly.
“However, the defendants are policemen
trained to protect the public and not otherwise. This in itself is an
aggravating factor.
“The defendants took advantage of their
being members of the Nigeria Police Force to rob citizens. This is unfortunate.
“Using the police uniform to rob is a bad
signal to the public because it will erode people’s confidence on the police.
“The image of the police should not be
dented to the extent that members of the public will begin to see police
checkpoints as an armed robbers,” he said.