A high Court in Akure, Ondo State, has sentenced a clergyman, Pastor Adeniyi Mathew, and three others to death by hanging. They were sentenced for their involvement in a robbery that occurred in a commercial bank in Akure in 2005. The others to face the hangman’s noose are Evangelist Akeem Benjamin, Comos Obi and Sherif Ogunleye. The convicts were said to have participated in the robbery where N26m was stolen. In his judgment, Justice David Kolawole, found the four persons guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and robbery. Kolawole noted that the prosecution had sufficiently established the evidences against the defendants and found them guilty. The two offences were said to have been charged under the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions) Act which carry a mandatory death sentence. The court however freed three other defendants in the case, Olatunji Akindele, Saliu Ahmed and Akande Ahmed for lack of sufficient evidence. At the commencement of the trial in 2013, eight persons were arraigned for the offence, but one of them, Olanrewaju Johnson, escaped from the Olokuta Prison in Akure during a jailbreak at the prison .
