Former Lawyer to Nnamdi Kanu and the counsel to the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor has expressed readiness to file appeal at the Appeal Court of Justice against the judgement of Lagos State High Court that sentenced an Ebonyi State born security guard, Samson Ogochukwu to death by hanging because he was accused of masterminding armed robbery attack against his employer after he was kidnapped and taken away by the armed robbers who dropped him along the road and gave him ₦100,000 cash gift to return to his village but instead he decided to go back to his employer.

The death row inmate while calling for help with a video of himself inside the Kirikiri maximum prison in Lagos State, said, one of the armed robbers happened to be the person who took him from Onitsha in Anambra State where he was, and helped him to Lagos State to get the security job.

Adding, the person alongside other members of the armed robbery gang were later arrested by the police but the High Court set them free and only sentenced him to death by hanging.

SaharaReporters had reported on November 13, 2024 “that an indigene of Ebonyi State in the South-East region of Nigeria who is living in Lagos, Sampson Ogochukwu, had cried out for help after he said he was sentenced to death by hanging by the Lagos State High Court for a “crime he knows nothing about.” 

Ogochukwu, who narrated his ordeal in a video that had since gone viral, said he was accused of arranging a robbery attack at a place where he was employed as a security guard (gatekeeper) in the Lekki area of Lagos.

He had said he was arrested in 2017 after his friend he identified as Chuks Viviana Okonkwo from Imo State made him relocate from Onitsha in Anambra State to Lagos, and got the security guard job for him.

However, he said the same friend who got the job for him brought four others to his place of work, tied him with a rope and forced him to take them to his employer, where they robbed his employer and carted away with his car and other valuables.

After the robbery, Ogochukwu said the armed robbers forced him into the car trunk and ran away but along the road, they brought him out, gave him ₦100,000 and asked him to leave Lagos and return to the South-East.

However, he decided to go back to his employer to explain what happened but got arrested and was accused of being the masterminder of the robbery. 

Subsequently, he was arrainged in court and convicted and sentenced to death by hanging while the court discharged the criminals who were later arrested by the police”.

Barrister Ejiofor in a statement on Friday said that his chamber is taking up the case, adding, a junior lawyer in his Chamber had been sent to the court that delivered the judgement to obtain documentary evidence and processes filed in the court leading to his conviction.

Ejiofor in a news release titled: “In Response to the Trending Call for Justice” stated in quotes below thus:

“Recently, my social media platforms and, indeed, my phones were inundated with this trending video. Though I had in response to this clarion call directed a junior colleague to proceed to the court that delivered the judgment and obtain the necessary records of proceedings that will enable us to swing into action which the process is progressing seamlessly, I am aware that a citizen charged with a capital offence is by law entitled to be represented by counsel. This should be the first hurdle.

The accounts, as he provided in the video, regarding somebody who brought him to Lagos to find employment and later came with his gang to rob in the very household he was engaged in, is a statement of fact that will be verified and explored on our appeal when we are in receipt of the records. 

Let us see the records of proceedings of the trial court, read the evidence of witnesses that testified, their extrajudicial statements to the police, that of the convict and his evidence at the trial, if any, and then see how the learned trial judge evaluated admissible evidence, oral and documentary, and the findings of fact he made from accepted evidence. And further interface with the convict. From the above findings, we will determine the direction of our legal arsenal on appeal.

For the interim, I will implore the general public to give us the space to decisively deal with the case in line with the requirement of the law. 

Let us emphasize that this is a public interest brief we are solely taking up 100% pro bono, as always”, Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor stated.