By Onyinyechi Ugwoke
At the resumed trial of Chidinma Ojukwu on Thursday, at the Lagos State High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square Annex.
The third witness, Oluwo Ifeoluwa, a business man who deals in sales of phones, laptops and accessories at Computer Village, Ikeja told the court that, the accused sold an Apple Mac Book Pro Laptop to him on the 18th of June, 2021 and when he inquired to know if she had the receipt of the laptop and if it belongs to her, she said, it was a gift from her boyfriend.
The prosecution counsel Y.A Sule who examined the witness asked, how do you conduct the sales of a used item in order to prevent buying a stolen property.
The third witness replied that, there are documents they ask for like Government identification card, drivers license, international passport, voter’s card, NIN etc. There is a form you are expected to fill in your details such as email address, phone number, house address, full name and also the amount the item was valued as of the time and day, serial number of the item and the name of the item. This is done in order to contact the customer incase there is any issue generally.
Narrating how Chidinma came to his office at Ikeja. Oluwo said, I was not in the office when she came but I was called to inspect the laptop. I asked her to unlock the laptop so I can have access to the laptop and she did. I conducted my internal observations of the laptop which includes speed performance, psycho count of the battery and general observations. After that, I proceeded to ask the question, if she had a receipt of the laptop and if the laptop belongs to her. She stated that, it was a gift from her boyfriend and she has two laptops, so she needed to sell one. Thereafter, I confirmed the value of the laptop from Apple Website.
She wanted to sell for for 600, 000 naira but we were able to negotiate to 495, 000 naira which I initiated from my UBA account to her Sterling bank account, only after the forms were filled and documents were in our possession.
When asked if she was able to provide a receipt.
Oluwo replied, No, because she insisted it was a gift.
He continued that after the sale of the Laptop, there was a report on social media regarding the death and theft in a murder case connected to the accused. The name was very familiar and close to the name of the customer they attended to. So, he ensured all documents were kept handy. A few days later, the police invited his manager, Mr. Olutayo Abayomi to the station.
A call was made to him that, his manager was invited to the police station, then he proceeded to the station to find out why. When he got to the station, he discovered that it was in connection to the laptop they purchased on 18th June 2021 from the accused.
At the police station, Oluwo said, he and his manager wrote a statement, retaining their account in connection to the laptop and how they came about the laptop and gave to the police all documents containing the sale of the laptop.
When asked by the Prosecution counsel the station they were invited to.
He replied, State CID, Panti.
Oluwo replied, “No” when he was asked by the Prosecution counsel if in his line of business, there is anyway he can detect whether a phone or laptop is a stolen product.
When asked by the first defendant’s lawyer, Onwuka Egwu, why at Panti where you shown any document or proof of ownership to show what Chidinma told you, that is contrary about the MAC Book.
He replied, No.
The lawyers to the second and third defendants said they have no cross-exqmination for the witness, as the totality of the evidence do not touch on their clients.
Justice Yetunde Adesanya adjourned the case to November 29th and 30th for further hearing.
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