5 the P.W.1 and P.W.2 that in the early hours of the i h day of July, 2007 there was a robbery at their house at No. 1O Obiekwe Street, Ebenasa Umunri Village, Amichi and a total sum of N1 20, 000.00 was stolen . The prosecution has therefore, established the fact that there was robberx in the house of the P.W.1 and P.W.2 in the early hours of the 7 h day of July, 2007. The question then is whether the prosecution has successfully established I that the robbery was a_n armed robbery. This is the next ingredient of the offence of armed robbery which the prosecution is expected to prove beyond reasonable doubt. The evidence linking the defendants with the offences alleged were adduced throug h the testimonies of the P.W.1 and P.W.2. I have considered the relevant evidence of the witnesses on this point because of their importance. The learned counsel for the prosecution in his final written address contended that the P.W.1 and P.W.2 in their evidence testified that the defendants were armed during the armed robbery operation . In considering whether the alleged perpetrators were armed during the robbery operation , I will for now not use the defendants' extra judicial statements which are Exhibits "C" , "C 1" , "D" and "0 1" for obvious reasons. From the evidence of the P.W.1 and P.W.2, it is clear to me that there is nothing in their evidence to suggest that the people who entered their house and robbed them were bearing gun or guns. As a matter of fact , the two witnesses did not say that the people were carrying weapons of any kind . I have as such , considered the import of the contention of the learned counsel for the defendants that failure to recover the arms and ammunition from the defendants and tender them at the trial is fatal to the case of the prosecution . However, it must be borne in mind that in criminal cases, it is only when all the perpetrators of the crime were arrested at the scene of crime while committing the offence that the weapons used or the things stolen can be recovered from them . In most Gases they dispose of these things immediately after the commission of the offence in order to avoid suspicion . But where there is cogent, reliable and authentic oral evidence which the Court admits and believes, the failure to tender the weapon employed in a robbery and the thing stolen cannot be prejudicial to the case of the prosecution . H\G~"'~!~~Jr_ OF ""U:-a . , .r 0 7 ~UG 2111 SEE: ATTAH VS. STATE (2009) 15 NWLR (PT. 1164) :284.