The statement signed by the Chief Registrar of the state judiciary, Yetunde Ajanaku, said the judiciary was disturbed about the judgment and the uproar it has generated in social media within and outside the state.
The statement made available to journalists stated that the Ondo State Judiciary had taken note of a recent judicial pronouncement delivered by an Ondo State Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Ile-Oluji on the 12th day of August 2024 the case of the Commissioner of Police versus Benjamin Andrew in which the purported Certified True Copies of this judgment has become the subject of extensive online discussions and public scrutiny.
It said the Ondo State Judiciary was deeply concerned about this development and the learned Chief Judge had promptly launched a meticulous investigation to authenticate the veracity of the Certified True Copies of the said judgment, as well as to thoroughly examine the circumstances leading to the pronouncement thereof if the Judgment was duly authenticated.
In the judgment delivered on August 12, which has gone viral, the convict, Benjamin Andrew, who had no legal representation in the court was sentenced for stealing cocoa in the complainant’s farm.
A copy of the judgment sighted on X handle of Suave Lawyer (@jurists_oriko), read partly that although the defendant pleaded not guilty, the complainant said this was the second time he would meet him in his farm stealing his cocoa.
He said defendant confessed and he begged complainant to forgive him adding tha it was the second time that complainant would arrest him and brought him to the station for stealing in his farm. The defendant denied the allegation that he did not steal in complainant farm court. He explained that he noticed stealing of cocoa was rampart in that area and a court of justice must do something before it gets out of hands.
Faulting the judgement, some of the legal practitioners described the judgement as an abuse of judicial office and process
A lawyer and Lead Volunteer/Coordinator Human Right Foundation – West, Aliyu Yunusa said the judgment was condemnable and unreasonable.
In his own view, Oju Kekemeke said the judgment was shocking and embarrassing and strange to the criminal justice administration system.
Kekemeke said the procedure adopted by the court was strange and unknown to the criminal justice administration system. It is also pertinent to note that from this purported record of proceeding and/or judgment the defendant was not afforded the opportunity to defend himself, which is a right guaranteed and secured by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended.
Worst still, he added, the court handed down a grave and punitive sentence of three years imprisonment without trial even when the defendant entered a plea of not guilty. This purported judgment cannot stand the test of legal, rational and logical reasoning on appeal.