Bus driver jailed 12 years for killing LASTMA officer

Justice Oyindamola Ogala of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja, on Thursday sentenced a commercial bus driver, Elijah Shokoya, to 12 years imprisonment for killing an officer of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA), Olawale Akinmade.

Akinmade died on January 27, 2021.

The Lagos State government arraigned the convict for knocking down Akinmade while driving a blue and black Opel space bus with the number plate AAA 74 GG on that fateful day.

The prosecution told the court the convict committed the offence on Demurin Street junction inward Mile 12 in Lagos.

He was arraigned on June 23, 2021, and pleaded not guilty to the one-count charge.

According to the prosecution, the offence violates Section 224 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The judge sentenced the driver after she held that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt, the charge of involuntary manslaughter against him.

She also declared that the acts of the convict which eventually caused the victim’s death were with the knowledge that injury or grievous bodily harm was the probable consequence.

The judge said: “The position of the law is well settled that the burden of proof in criminal cases rests with the prosecution and the standard of proof was proved beyond reasonable doubt.

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“As regards the death of Akinmade Samson Olawale, there seems to be no dispute as to the death of the deceased.

“The first prosecution witness, Aderonke Malik, testified that she saw the defendant pushing the deceased into the front of his vehicle.

“Her testimony is that she ran there asking the defendant to stop the car but he did not and that the deceased kept on banging the bonnet of the vehicle to stop.

“She testified that the defendant did not stop until he knocked down the deceased.

“Also, in this instant case, it is instructive that the Investigating Police Officer gave direct evidence of what she saw, heard, and investigated.

“The court, therefore, finds that the evidence cannot be faulted as suggested by the defence in this instance.

“The degree of proof amounting to reasonable doubt needed not to reach certainty but carried a high degree of probability.

“Once the ingredients of the offence the accused is charged with are proved, that constitutes proof beyond a reasonable doubt and for him to be entitled to the benefit of the doubt, the doubt must be a genuine and reasonable one arising from some evidence before the court.

“This honourable court, therefore, finds the defendant guilty of the one count charge of involuntary manslaughter and he is accordingly convicted.

“I hereby sentenced the defendant to 12 years imprisonment from the day of judgment.”

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