Nigeria Holds First Online Court Sitting In Lagos, Man Sentenced To Death For Murder

The first virtual court session, which held in Nigeria at Ikeja High Court in Lagos on Monday saw the sentencing to death of one Olalekan Hameed for a December 1, 2018 murder of Mrs Jolasun Okunsanya, 76, the mother of his employer, at the time. 

Participants from the bar included the state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), the prosecutor, Ms Titilayo Shitta-Bey, and some senior lawyers like Funke Adekoya SAN, Tayo Oyetibo SAN, Olukayode Enitan SAN, amongst others.

Delivering the judgment via video conferencing platform, Zoom, Justice Mojisola Dada said, “The sentence of this court upon you, Olalekan Hameed, is that you be hanged by the neck until you be pronounced dead and may the Lord have mercy upon your soul. This is the virtual judgment of the court.”

The proceedings were approved by Chief Judge, Justice Kazeem Alogba, in line with the Lagos State Judiciary Remote Hearing of Cases COVID-19 Pandemic Period Practice Direction.

Justice Dada conducted proceedings from High Court 10 in Ikeja, the defendant Hameed was at Kirikiri Maximum Correctional Centre, Apapa, while the counsels were at different locations.

Judicial Officers including Justice Alogba, Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye, Justice Josephine Oyefeso, Justice Sherifat Solebo, Justice Afeez Dabiri, Justice Roli Harriman, amongst others, also participated.

The court session for the charge marked ID/9006C/2019, held online via a video app Zoom. It began at 11am and ended before 2pm.

The judge, defendant, his team of counsel, the prosecution team led by Lagos State Solicitor-General Ms Titilayo Shitta-Bey and all witnesses participetd in the session remotely from different locations via the Zoom app.

Hameed was arraigned on March 6, 2019 on a two-count charge of murder and stealing on Charge No. ID/9006C/2019, The Nation reports.

The court heard that he committed the offence at about 12:30pm at plot 83, Owukori Crescent, Alaka Estate, Surulere, Lagos.

He pleaded not guilty, following which trial commenced.

The prosecution called several witnesses and tendered exhibits including the coroner’s report, stolen N97, 500 and $117 recovered from the defendant and a confessional statement, among others.

“The only money I took was the N1, 000, any other money I don’t know about it. I did not kill Mrs Jolaso Ogunsanya,” Hakeem told the judge during the trial.

But Justice Dada noted that prosecution witnesses’ testimonies that Hakeem was the only one with the deceased at the time of death and he was also seen scaling the fence of the deceased’s building afterwards, among others, were not disproved.

UK To Launch Smartphone App For Tracking COVID-19

Britain was poised on Monday to roll out a new smartphone tracing app for coronavirus on an island off England’s south coast, as the country looks to ease a six-week nationwide lockdown. 

The app, developed by the state-run National Health Service (NHS), will be trialled on the Isle of Wight ahead of its planned rollout across Britain later this month.

It is seen as a key part of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to lift stay-at-home orders imposed in late March.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced the app would be available to the island’s health professionals from Tuesday, before being rolled out to all of the island’s roughly 80,000 households later this week.

He said the app was part of the government’s new “test, track and trace” strategy that aimed “to hunt down and isolate the virus so it’s unable to reproduce”.

“This does not mean the end of social distancing on the Isle of Wight or anywhere else for that matter,” Hancock added at the daily Downing Street briefing.

Britain is one of the worst-hit countries in the COVID-19 pandemic, announcing another 288 deaths on Monday to take the death toll to 28,734 — the third highest globally and almost on a par with second-placed Italy.

Johnson said last week the country was “past the peak” of the outbreak but not yet ready to move out of lockdown.

The measures — which are assessed at three-week intervals — are set for review on Thursday, but the British leader is not expected to set out his proposals for their easing until Sunday, according to media reports.

In the meantime, officials will assess how well the smartphone app performs on the Isle of Wight.

‘Stick with lockdown’

The island is seen as an ideal place for the trial because it has no direct links to mainland Britain and has a relatively low number of confirmed virus cases.

The app will be deployed alongside a newly recruited team of contact tracers, who will eventually number 18,000 nationwide, to help track down people identified by the tool as at-risk of having become infected.

But Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned it was not a “quick-fix” and that the number of people being infected was still too high to make any “meaningful change” to the social distancing regime.

“It is very likely on Thursday I will be asking you to stick with lockdown for longer,” she said.

Britons are currently being told to stay at home unless they need to work, buy essentials or take daily exercise, but they must stay at least two metres away from other people.

New government guidance on how to maintain social distancing in workplaces suggests British office workers will be encouraged to stay at home for months to avoid overwhelming the transport system, according to the BBC and the Financial Times.

The guidance urges employers to stagger shifts and stop people from sharing desks or stationery. Workers who deal with customers must also be protected by plastic screens.

No date for reopening schools has yet been decided, a spokesman for Johnson told reporters.

COVID-19: FG to disinfect schools nationwide

The Federal Government on Monday announced that it would soon commence the disinfection and decontamination of schools across the country.

Minister of Environment, Muhammad Mahmood, disclosed this at the Presidential Task Force briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja.

He said the Federal Ministry of Environment would get the data of schools nationwide from the Federal Ministry of Education.

Mahmood said, “We are initiating a programme of decontaminating and disinfecting our schools before they open.

“Because subsequently in the phases (of reopening the lockdown), I believe we will get to that point when we start opening the schools.

“So, we will be liaising with the Federal Ministry of Education to make sure we have the needed data to carry out the exercise.”

Although the minister did not state when the exercise would start, he said his ministry had been making efforts to commence the programme.

Mahmood said, “Today we will like to brief you on our first video conference with our Environmental Health Sanitation desks across the country, the 36 states plus the FCT.

“Also in attendance was a representative of the World Health Organisation, the purpose of which is to build additional capacity and to reiterate adherence to the guidelines in this response to COVID-19.”

170 new cases of #COVID19;

39-Lagos

29-Kano

24-Ogun

18-Bauchi

15-Kaduna

12-FCT

12-Sokoto

8-Katsina

7-Borno

3-Nasarawa

2-Adamawa

1-Oyo

2558 confirmed cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria

Discharged: 400

Deaths: 87

Coronavirus: 16 health workers test positive in Borno

Borno State government has confirmed that sixteen health workers tested positive for Coronavirus. Usman Umar Kadafur, the State’s Deputy Governor and chairman of the response team disclosed this on Saturday during a press briefing in Maiduguri, the State capital.
He added that so far, a total of 69 COVID-19 persons have been confirmed positive in Borno State, NAN reports.

He appealed to residents to be vigilant and observe all precautionary measures, adding that there is a need to increase the number of isolation centres in the State.
The State’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Salisu Kwaya-Bura, also speaking, said the number of health workers that tested positive in Borno showed the increasing risks being faced in the fight against coronavirus.
He added that in view of the development, about 2,000 Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), had been ordered by the State.

The commissioner, who is the Secretary of the team, said a total of 69 people were infected with COVID-19 in the State, out of which nine had died.
“At the moment, none of our patients is at a critical state.
“They are at the isolation centres receiving medical attention; though the kind of attention varies for those with mild symptoms and those with moderate symptoms,” Kwaya-Bura added.

Break down of the 220 new cases of #COVID19;

NCDC

62-Lagos 

52-FCT 

31-Kaduna 

13-Sokoto 

10-Kebbi 

9-Yobe 

6-Borno 

5-Edo 

5-Bauchi 

4-Gombe 

4-Enugu 

4-Oyo 

3-Zamfara 

2-Nasarawa 

2-Osun 

2-Ebonyi 

2-Kwara 

2-Kano 

2-Plateau 

2388 confirmed cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria 

Discharged: 385 

Deaths: 85

COVID-19: Police intercept Sokoto travellers at Osun-Oyo boundary

Oyo State Police Command on Saturday arrested no fewer than eleven travelers from Sokoto in Ibadan, the state capital.

The eleven travelers defied the inter-state lockdown order of the Oyo State Government, in their bid to sneak into Akure, Ondo State.

Commissioner of Police, Mr. Sina Olukolu, who briefed Governor, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on his arrival at the Gbagi Police Station, where the culprits were detained overnight, said the travelers were apprehended at the Asejire Dam axis of the Ibadan-Osun boundary.

Olukolu added that they claimed they were traveling from Sokoto en route to Akure, Ondo State.

Makinde, while reacting, however, said the travelers will not be released to the Sokoto State Government until they undergo COVID-19 tests, and that they would remain isolated until the results of their Covid-19 tests were received from the state.

He noted that the government has begun COVID-19 tests for travelers.

Makinde said “We are not able to explain how they got here in the first place because there is inter-state lockdown throughout the country.

“They claimed they came from Sokoto and they must have passed through so many states.”

The governor also explained that he has given directives to the effect that the travelers would be kept isolated in Ibadan until the results of their COVID-19 tests are received.

The governor also explained that he was in touch with the Sokoto State governor, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, and that the travelers would be sent back to Sokoto State.

He said that the state would intensify ongoing strategies for inter-state lockdown.

“I am also in discussion with the governor of Sokoto State. We are more than likely going to return them to Sokoto.”

The governor maintained that governors in the country were still discussing on how to enforce the inter-state lockdown throughout the country to curtail the spread of the novel Coronavirus.

“It is a discussion going on with the rest governors in Nigeria, because inter-state lockdown was put in place for a particular reason and what we have agreed to do is, in each state where you have inter-state motor parks, they must be on lockdown. If they are locked down, at least 80 to 85 percent of our problems would have been solved. It is an ongoing discussion and I believe that will be the ultimate way to go.”

In his response during the interrogation, the driver of the bus, who identified himself as Muhammad Idris, said they passed through old roads and bushes from Sokoto to Niger and Kwara and then got into Ogbomoso, from where they entered Ibadan.

He added that they were going to Akure “to reconnect with their family members.”