The Lagos Declare Ministry of Justice has clarified that a teenager and an adult not lengthy ago reported to have been detained over a pair of slippers were actually charged and prosecuted for alleged conspiracy to commit robbery and armed robbery.
The clarification was contained in a rejoinder issued by the Director of Community Prosecutions, Lagos Status Ministry of Justice, Adebayo Haroun, on Friday together with respect to price figure ID/22014C/23.
Haroun said the defendants were charged under Sections 299 and 297(2) of the Criminal Law of Lagos Declare, 2015, following allegations that they were within a group that robbed a man of his phone and gold chain.
The clarification followed an web-based situation alleging that the defendants had been kept in custody over a pair of slippers allegedly equivalent to those belonging to the nominal complainant.
He said the case was initially assigned to Justice Adenike Coker of the Ikeja High Court once the facts was filed on May 31, 2023, but was later transferred to Justice Hakeem Oshodi in October 2025 following Coker’s countrywide assignment.
According to the DPP, the defendants’ pleas were taken on October 13, 2025, later than which the case was fixed for trial.
He said the prosecution listed the nominal complainant, Daniel Lucky Danjuma, and two police investigators, ASP Dolapo and Inspector Omozuafo Martins, as witnesses.
Haroun said repeated efforts to secure Danjuma’s attendance in court were unsuccessful as his telephone was unreachable.
“The prosecuting crew was unable to protected his attendance as his phone was unreachable,” he said.
The DPP said the prosecution accordingly commenced its case using Inspector Martins, who testified on December 10, 2025, regarding how the complainant arrested the defendants and took them to the Ikeja Police Station.
According to Haroun, the complainant stated in his declaration to the police that he and a friend boarded a “one-likelihood” bus on November 27, 2022, and were in time allowed to alight at Nationwide Bus Conclude, complete to Oshodi.
He allegedly told the police that he was subsequently attacked by some men armed together with a cutlass and a gun, who too allegedly used charm, and robbed him of an iPhone 13 Pro Max and a gold chain.
Haroun said the complainant returned to the area the following day and allegedly found one of the defendants wearing his palm slippers.
The complainant then identified the man as one of his alleged attackers and took the primary and second defendants to the police station, the DPP said.
Yet, subsequent to efforts to guarded another witness failed, the prosecution closed its case, prompting the defendants, through means of their handbook, to file a no-case submission.
Haroun said both parties filed and adopted their written addresses in advance of Justice Oshodi delivered judgment on September 29, 2026.
He said the court upheld the no-case submission and discharged the defendants.
The DPP attributed the outcome to the failure of the nominal complainant to appear in court and testify against the defendants.
“The nominal complainant who identified the defendants as section of the gang that attacked him did not come to court to testify in this case as such the evidence to associate the defendants using the crime was unavailable,” Haroun said.
He added that the prosecution could not manufacture evidence where a key witness failed to appear in court.
“The failure of the complainant to attend court underscores the importance of the detail that the prosecution cannot manufacture evidence except if the general people performs its section by actively being interested in the outcome of criminal infractions reported at police stations,” he said.
Haroun consequently rejected the portrayal of the case as one in which the defendants were detained plainly as of a pair of slippers.
“It is accordingly not accurate that the defendants were detained owing to the truth that of a pair of slippers but were alleged to have robbed the nominal complainant using dangerous weapons,” he said.
The DPP added that the prosecutorial authority of the Attorney-General would carry on to be exercised “in the worry of the whole audience, justice and to block abuse.”
Source: Teenager, adult were charged with armed robbery, says Lagos Justice Ministry
