The five men who kidnapped the wife of the Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Alhaja Muibat Salaam, has been sentenced to 27 years imprisonment by an Osun State High Court.

The judge, Justice Moshood Adeigbe ruled that each of the five convicts would spend seven years for the charge of conspiracy; ten years for the count of kidnap, and another ten years for the charge of unlawful possession of firearms.

The five persons convicted by the court are: Chukwudi Okereke (40); Ogbole Ochijile Elijah (25); Lucky Okonkwo (33); Kaikine Mahah (35); and Philip Nwadinnor (30).

The prosecution team led by the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adewale Afolabi, told the court that the convicts had confessed to the kidnapping in the confessional statements each of them gave to the police during investigation.

However, the defence counsel vowed to appeal the judgment, stating that the confessional statements were not tested, stressing that the best thing was to have ordered  a trial within trial  to be able to authenticate the  statements.