Justice Aigbona Momodu of the Edo State Special Criminal Court has adjourned the trial of four suspects accused of abducting victims at Benin City’s Vegetable Market until August 20, 2026, to allow counsel to make their final written addresses.
Justice Momodu delayed the hearing after the fourth defendant, Miss Gift Raphael, completed her defence.
Barrister Felix Imasuen is defending Gift Raphael, 27, while Barrister Henry Amaechi represents the three other suspects: Marvellous Isaac, 32, Wisdom Michael, 36, and Rufus Emete Michael, 30.
The suspects are on trial on a 10-count accusation of cultism, kidnapping, armed robbery, conspiracy, and unauthorised possession of guns.
The accused are on trial for the alleged kidnapping of a woman on June 14, 2026 in Benin City, as well as other kidnappings in the state.
The trial was extended on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, to Friday, August 7, 2026, to allow Barrister Felix Imasuen, the defence counsel, to have a pre-trial conference with his client, the fourth defendant, Miss Gift Raphael.
Prof Roland Otaru, Edo State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, led other state lawyers in cross-examining the defendant at the resumed hearing.
During cross questioning, the defendant denied involvement in any kidnapping or other charges.
The defendant, who claimed to be in the corn-selling industry, also stated that she has been dating Marvellous Isaac, the suspected gang leader of the kidnapping gang, for three years.
She also denied being with her lover on June 14, 2026, when the claimed vegetable market kidnapping occurred.
According to her, she did not know the first defendant, Isaac Marvellous, as a kidnapper, but rather as an electrician and then the Chief Security Officer of the Ureghin neighbourhood on Upper Ekenwa Road in Benin City.
Gift also told the court that the money her boyfriend handed her was a partial payment for the money she borrowed.
Speaking to reporters following the sitting, Attorney-General Otaru praised the presiding judge, Justice Aigbona Momodu, for expediting the matter in accordance with Governor Monday Okpebholo’s direction.