By ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH & ONOZURE DANIA

IKEJA – Justice Lateefa Okunnu of an Ikeja High Court, yesterday, rejected as exhibits, photographs taken at the scene where the late banker, Mrs. Titilayo Arowolo,was  allegedly killed by her husband, Kolade.

When the matter came up, the prosecution team led by the state Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Mrs. Olabisi Ogungbesan, sought to tender some pictures taken at the scene of crime, but Arowolo’s counsel, Mr. Olarenwaju Ajanaku, opposed the application, saying the court could not accept the photographs since they were not accompanied with the negatives as prescribed by the Evidence Act.

The DPP had attempted to tender the photographs through a witness, Inspector Gift Onyechi, a police photographer from the Forensic Photographic Section of State CID, Yaba.

Ajanaku told the court that since the photographs were taken with analogue camera, it was expected that the prosecution would also produce the negatives of the photographs before they could  be admitted as exhibits.

In a short ruling, Justice Okunnu rejected the photographs and directed the prosecution to produce the negatives as requested by the defence.

Before this development, the prosecution had put Mr. Gift Onyechi, the 10th  prosecution witness into the box.
Onyechi, in his testimony, described the scene of the incident, saying that when they arrived at the residence of the Arowolos at 8, Akindehinde Street, Isolo, Lagos, they met the door already damaged and he took shots of the scene.
“The door leading to the apartment was seriously damaged, we saw blood at the wall in the kitchen, the room turned upside down, the bed also has blood stains and a lot of flesh were found at the bedside.”
At this juncture, the court adjourned further hearing till June 6,2012.