An Ondo High Court, sitting in Akure, the Ondo state capital, has sentenced a farmer, Gbenga Akintola, to 21 years imprisonment for robbery.

Akintola had pleaded not guilty to the five-count charge brought against him by the state security outfit codenamed Amotekun.

He was arraigned for conspiracy to commit felony to with armed robbery and armed robbery.

Amotekun had filed a charge against him on September 20, 2022, alleging that Akintola and another person still at large, sometime in August and October 2021, around Oke-Olifi via Itanla Junction, Ondo town, allegedly robbed Onuh Chidinma of her valuables.

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The valuables include itel phone valued at N20,000 and the sum of N150 in her bag; Rufus Rhoda of her small techno phone valued at N6,500, techno K-7 phone valued at N35,000 and the sum of N4,500.

He was alleged to have robbed one Ayodeji Oluwayemisi of her bag, an itel phone valued at N4,500 and the sum of N2,800, while armed with a cutlass and other offensive weapons.

According to the Police prosecutor, Alako Abdulahi, while testifying, said that men of Amotekun Corps brought the defendant to the police station on October 19, 2021, with four mobile phones, a motorcycle, a bag and a small purse recovered from him.

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Abdulahi said that the defendant admitted those items were found on him but that a man called Sunday Igbo handed them over to him.

Also, while testifying, one of the victims, Rufus Rhoda she and Chidinma were going to Mount Olive prayer centre when the defendant came out of the bush, masked with a cap and armed with a cutlass.

Rhoda said that the defendant asked them to drop their bags and all the contents, after which the defendant carried the bags and ran into the bush. She said that her bag contained techno 7, another small techno and the sum of N4,500.00

But the defendant, said that the stolen items were recovered from the house of Sunday who was at large.

Akintola added that the police had threatened to charge him to court for robbery if he did not pay N200,000 to bail himself.

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However, in his judgement, Justice W. R. Olamide, discharged the defendant of some of counts because, there was no evidence to link the cutlass found in the defendant’s house with the robbery allegation.

Olamide, therefore, sentenced the defendant to seven years imprisonment for conspiracy and 21 years imprisonment for robbery, adding that it was to run concurrently.

Two women leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State have been kidnapped along Manini flash point of Birnin Gwari Local Governments Area of the state after attending the inauguration of the state governor, Senator Uba Sani

This was disclosed by the chairman of Birnin Gwari Emirate Progressive Union (BEPU, Ishaq Usman Kasai in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune on Wednesday morning

According to him, the bandits blocked the road and kidnapped the two APC women leaders including dozens of others.

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He said the kidnapped women leaders are Birnin Gwari APC women leader, Hajiya Lami Awarware and her assistant, Hajiya Haulatu Aliyu.

According to Nigerian Tribune, immediately after the victims were kidnapped on Tuesday, the kidnappers took them to the forest.

He also said that the abductors are yet to contact the families of the victims or any person in the area.

Recall, two days ago, BEPU had while congratulating the president, Bola Tinubu pleaded with the president to end the insecurity bedeviling the Local Government Area.

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Also as at the time of filling the report,the state government and the police are to issue a statement on the development.

The Oyo State Police Command, on Tuesday, arrested 78 suspected members of the disbanded Park Management System for allegedly planning to cause civil disorder in Ibadan, the state capital.

The state governor, Seyi Makinde, had earlier announced the dissolution of PMS headed by Mukaila Lamidi, popularly known as Auxiliary.

azarrest included guns, 724 live cartridges, 25 cutlasses, seven jack knives, 33 mobile phones, one laptop, charms, two vehicles and over N3m cash.

The state Commissioner of Police, Adebowale Williams, who paraded the suspects at the command’s headquarters, Eleyele in Ibadan, said, “On Tuesday, in a strategic intelligence coordinated raid around Auxiliary’s location at Diamond Hotel, Alakia-Isebo, under Egbeda Local Government, 78 suspected hoodlums who had perfected plans to unleash mayhem at the early hours of today (Tuesday) at major parts of the metropolis were arrested in possession of sophisticated firearms.

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“During the raid, sophisticated firearms were recovered inside the hotel rooms and in the trunk compartment of parked vehicles within the hotel.”

The CP said though Auxiliary escaped with some of his boys during the gun duel with the police, a member of the group was gunned down.

He added that the same group was alleged to be responsible for the attack on 14 members of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria in the Agodi area of Ibadan North-East Local Government Area of the state on Monday.

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Williams added, “In line with standard operational procedure, all recovered items were properly documented, packaged and recorded for onward forensics analysis and evidence purposes in accordance with the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 and all other relevant laws.”

Meanwhile, the state government, on Tuesday, shut down bus terminals in Ibadan, the state capital.

The PUNCH correspondent, who visited both the Ojoo and Challenge parks, observed that members of the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun, sealed them off.