Justice Sedoten Ogunsanya found Edet guilty of robbing an aluminium technician Adewale Elelo of his Nissan Pathfinder on February 21, 2012.
She sentenced him to 21 years imprisonment for conspiracy to commit robbery and another 21 years for robbery.
The sentences, which were without an option of a fine, will run concurrently, meaning that Edet will spend 21 years in jail.
Edet, from Akwa Ibom State, was arraigned on April 27, 2015, on a two-count charge of conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery.
Edet pleaded not guilty.
During the nearly three-year trial, Elelo testified that the incident occurred on June 15, 2012 between 10 and 11pm.
Elelo said: “I was returning from a C & S Church after a revival when, at St. Paul Street, on Agbado Road, leaving Toyin Bus Stop, the second street by the left, I saw a black Jeep waiting ahead of me. I drove towards it slowly and the car flashed its full headlights at me. I became afraid.
“He (Edet) alighted from the Jeep and accosted me, asking me to alight and demanded for my key. He asked me to get into the boot of my vehicle, but I ran away and pressed the remote control of my vehicle that was in my pocket.
“I got to a police check point at Toyin Bus Stop and alerted the police that I had been robbed. The policemen and passersby came to my rescue and found the defendant in the car because the remote control had made the car immovable.”
According to Elelo, Edet’s accomplices zoomed off as soon as the crowd arrived.
But Edet denied the allegations. He described himself as the victim of police illegal arrest.
The Nation
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