Edo court acquits DHL manager over missing UK-bound parcel

The Edo State High Court sitting in Benin has absolved the head of DHL in Benin City, Nuhu Omokide, of any complicity in a missing parcel said to have originated from Benin City and destined for the United Kingdom, which the receiver claimed she did not get.

The High Court, presided over by Justice E. G. Adekanmbi, said the decision by His Worship Afe Osamudiamen, Chief Magistrate Grade II, was not in line with the laws guiding the five-count charges against Omokide.

In the suit marked B/10CA/2025 between Nuhu Omokide as Appellant and Commissioner of Police as Respondent, Justice Adekanmbi said the petition written by the nominal complainant was against DHL, which is a legal entity, but that “There is no law that makes individuals in the company liable for the company’s actions or inactions unless those individuals perpetrated crimes hiding under the corporate veil.”

Besides, he said the records from the lower court did not show that any specific acts of a criminal nature were proved against the appellant to warrant his conviction, adding that the appellant is a staff member of DHL whose responsibility starts and ends as the manager of the Benin branch of the company.

In a copy of the judgement made available to PUNCH Online on Sunday, the judge said the record also showed that the appellant presented tracking records of the company, which indicated that the parcel in question left the Benin office of the company and, as such, was not with the appellant.

He said the lower court also erred when it concluded that the appellant appropriated the items listed in the parcel, which were said to be school certificates and documents relating to the receiver’s profession, because the appellant could not explain the whereabouts of the documents.

“In our adversarial system of adjudication, it is never the responsibility of the Defendant to prove his innocence. It was the prosecution who had the unmistakable onus to prove that the Appellant stole or converted the credentials to his own use instead of delivering them.”

The judge ruled that “the trial court only made out the case of a missing parcel of documents which was the responsibility of DHL to deliver to the addressee in the United Kingdom. There was no scintilla of evidence in proof of personal negligence on the part of the Appellant as the reason for the loss of the parcel.

“The prosecution failed to prove the Counts 1–5 beyond reasonable doubt.

“On the whole, this appeal succeeds, and I hereby grant the following orders: an order setting aside the judgment of the trial court and the conviction and sentence of the Appellant contained therein.

“An order discharging and acquitting the Appellant; an order that the N250,000 fine paid by the Appellant be refunded to him.”

PUNCH Online had reported last year that a Magistrate Court sitting in Benin City, Edo State, convicted Nuhu Omokide, a franchise owner of DHL in Benin, on five counts of conspiracy to steal, stealing, and unlawful interference with customers’ property.

Omokide, who was arraigned in charge No. MEG/275c/2023/A, was convicted on Tuesday, July 22, by Afe Osamudiamen (Chief Magistrate Grade I), under Sections 412(1)(2), 287(1)(b)(c), and 346 of the Criminal Law of Edo State, 2022.