Bolanle Raheem: Vandi Knows Fate April 4

Justice Ibironke Harrison of the Lagos State High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square will on April 4 deliver a ruling on a no-case submission application filed by suspended Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Drambi Vandi, the alleged killer of Lagos-based lawyer Mrs Omobolanle Raheem.

Justice Harrison fixed the date after the defence counsel, Adetokunbo Odutola and the state’s attorney-general and commissioner for justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), adopted their written submissions on the application.

Vandi argues in the application that the state has failed to link his client with the crime and that the judge has no other option but to dismiss the charges against him.

The defendant was arraigned before Justice Harrison by the Lagos State government on a one-count charge of murder contrary to Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015. He pleaded not guilty to the charge.

At the resumed hearing of the matter on Monday, Odutola argued that the ballistics report tendered by the prosecution showed that the gun did not match the bullet that was shot.

The lawyer further contended that the pathologist called in evidence by the prosecution and testified that the bullet penetrated from the left through the armpit. In contrast, the prosecution said the deceased was shot in the chest.

He maintained that with these “inconsistencies” and several others, the prosecution had not made a case against his client to warrant him to enter a defence.

But Onigbanjo opposed the application, arguing that it had made out a prima facie case against the defendant, making it necessary for him to put up a defence.

He said that the state had, through its witnesses and documentary evidence, proved his case beyond all reasonable doubts and that the judge must call on the defendant to defend himself.

At the court’s last sitting, a pathologist, Dr Williams Olatunde, had told the court that the deceased died of hemorrhagic shock and destruction of the chest visceral and musculoskeletal tissues.