Python in court

The snake produced as exhibit in a fraud case leaves the court and police wrangling over who will keep it while the trial lasts
Lawyers, litigants and police officers at the Ejigbo Magistrate Court in Lagos were panicked and fled for dear lives when a live python was tendered as an exhibit on Friday.
The prosecutor, Oladejo Balogun, refused to accept the snake as exhibit, and made an oral application asking the court to order the police to return it to their custody till the next adjourned date, saying that he had no place to keep it and he does not know the type of food the snake eats.
The police in turn said that they were tired of keeping the snake since the arrest of the suspects last Saturday and asked the court to accept and keep it as an exhibit.
The police had brought two suspected fraudsters, Kayode Oseni, 42, and Jamiu Adeyemi, 37, along with the snake as the exhibit which they allegedly planted in a house of a complainant, Jelili Kuku to defraud him.
Both men allegedly went to Kuku’s residence at 14, Foursquare Street, Ikotun, Lagos, and planted the snake while pretending to pray for him and cast out demons. It was gathered that they had planned to search and ‘discover’ the snake as proof to Kuku that demons were plaguing him. However, Kuku caught them trying to plant the reptile and raised an alarm.
The defendants were docked on a two-count charge of fraud and stealing contrary to and punishable under sections 419 and 390 of the Criminal Code Cap 17 Vol. 2 Laws of Lagos State, 2003.
They pleaded not guilty. The presiding magistrate, Mrs. M. B. Folami granted them bail in the sum of N500,000 each with two sureties each in like sum, and ordered that the defendants be remanded in prison custody pending when they will fulfill their bail conditions.
The police also had their hopes dashed as the magistrate ordered them to return the snake to their exhibit room till the next adjourned date. The matter was adjourned till 14 March 2012 for mention.