NIGERIA: PASTOR, EVANGELIST, 2 OTHERS SENTENCED TO DEATH OVER ROBBERY

June 9, 2014: Nine years after participating in a bank robbery, a pastor, Adeniyi Matthew, an Evangelist, Akeem Benjamin and two others have been sentenced to death over their roles in the robbery incident.
An Akure High Court, in its judgment over the case, found the four people, including Cosmos Obi and Sheriff Ogunleye guilty and ordered that they should be hanged.
However, two others  co-accused, Olatunji Akindele and Saliu Ahmed, were discharged and acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence to convict them.
Justice David Kolawole held that the evidences before the court were not controvertible as to the involvement of the convicts in the robbery incident.
The duo and other convicts, Obi, a trader from Delta State and Ogunleye, who claimed to be an apprentice, were found guilty alongside the pastor and evangelist by Justice Kolawole for their conspiracy in the robbery incident that took place at former NBM Bank, now Sterling Bank, about nine years ago. (Sources: 247nigerianewsupdate.co, 09/06/2014)