A Makurdi Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday remanded one Aondoakaa Kator and Ernest Ajimta, both of Gboko Local Government Area in Benue, for alleged criminal conspiracy and armed robbery.
The Magistrate, Mrs Erdoo Ter, did not take the plea of the defendants for want of jurisdiction.
She ordered that the defendants be remanded at the Makurdi Correctional Centre pending investigations, and adjourned the case until March 15, for further mention.
The prosecutor, Insp James Ewache, told the court that the case was reported by one Godwin Mbauhar of No. 59, J.S. Tarka Way, Gboko, on Jan. 7, 2023.
The complainant stated that he was in his shop attending to customers when three armed men invaded his shop, shooting sporadically.
Ewache said that the armed men ordered the complainant and his customers to lie face down and ransacked the shop.
He stated that the men took away the cash sum of N982,000 and 12 different types of Tecno phones from the complainant’s shop.
The prosecutor said that during police investigation, the stolen phones were tracked and one Tecno Spark 9 Pro and Tecno Spark 8c were recovered from the defendants, leading to their arrests.
According to the prosecutor, some of the suspects are still at large while investigation into the matter is ongoing.
He said the offence contravened Section 6(b) 1(1)(2)(a)(b) of the Robbery and Firearms Special Provision Act 2004