Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin has sentenced to death, three persons charged for alleged rape and murder of a 24-year-old University of Ilorin student, Olajide Blessing Omowumi on June 2, 2021.
They were brought to court in a suit No KWS/33c/c/ 2021 on an 11 count charge bordering on armed robbery, illegal possession of firearms and rape. They were to die by hanging.
The presiding judge, Hon. Justice Ibrahim Adebayo Yusuf, the three convicts were found guilty of culpable homicide punishable with death, conspiracy to commit robbery and cospiracy to murder.
Former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the State, Mallam Salman Jawondo (SAN) in whose tenure the case began in court who shed light on the judgement while speaking with joutnalists said; “The first, second and third defendants who are the main culprits were found guilty of culpable homicide punishable with death, conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to murder.
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“They were accordingly sentenced to death. That’s maximum. There’s no discretion for the court to exercise by virtue of provisions of the armed robbery Act, which is death. So also, by virtue of section 221 of the penal code, it’s death sentence for culpable homicide. So, they were accordingly sentenced to death.
“Although, the third defendant, who was also convicted of rape was sentenced to life imprisonment, but it’s neither here nor there. When somebody is condemned, the life imprisonment does not ameliorate anything.
“With respect to the fourth and fifth defendants, they were found guilty of conspiracy to steal and stealing of money in the bank account of the deceased. You know, after killing her, they took her ATM card, Sim card and her phone.
“They changed her password, through instrumentality of the fourth and fifth defendants, who are experts in computer manipulation, collected some money through transfer, totalling about N149,000. They were convicted for conspiracy and stealing/theft.
“They were accordingly sentenced to three years imprisonment to run concurrently. For conspiracy, one year, for main offence three years, commencing from the date of their arrest. They’ve spent about one and half years already in custody.
“The other three: sixth, seventh and eighth escaped by whiskers. They are very lucky. If you look at their involvement, they only assisted to dispose of property stolen.
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“The irony of it all is that all those involved are very young men of 19, 23 etc. It’s quite unfortunate. And that tells that we have to work on our future in this country”, the former Attorney General lamented .
In all, eight accused persons were charged to court on the matter bordering on the allegations of rape and murder of the 24-year-old undergraduate of the University of Ilorin.
They were; Abdulazeez Ismail, Ajala Moses Oluwatimileyin (aka Jacklord), Oyeyemi Timileyin Omogbolahan, Abdulkarim Shuaib (aka Easy), Kareem Oshioyemi Rasheed (Rashworld), Abdullateef Abdulrahman, Daud Bashir Adebayo (aka Bashman) and Akande Taiye Oladoja,
The police had earluer come up with a confirmation after investigations that they were suspected of rape and murder of a 300 Level student of the University of Ilorin in her residence located at Tanke area of the Ilorin metropolis on June 2, 2021.
The deceased who was said to be staying with her elder sister, Dr. Dupe Shittu, at Tanke area until her death was a student of the Agricultural Science Department from Oke-Opin community in the Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara state.
Three of the defendants, Abdulazeez Ismail, Ajala Moses Oluwatimileyin (aka Jacklord) and Oyeyemi Timileyin Omogbolahan, were said to have conspired among themselves, “to rob one Olajide Gloria Blessing Omowumi also known as “Wumi” (now deceased) of her Samsung Galaxy A2 Core handset and carted away other items, including.
They also were said to conspire to rob the deceased of her one black Acer aspire, one series laptop, one Samsung drive, one pink wireless mouse, one white handheld mini sewing machine, one infinix charger and one gold colour win touch tab while armed with offensive weapons including a black wooden pistol gun.
The prosecution also accused five others of aiding and abetting the receipt of stolen items which include the Samsung Galaxy A2 Core handset and some other computer gadgets being proceeds of armed robbery.
The charge also accused Abdulazeez Ismail, Kareem Oshioyemi Rasheed and Abdulkarim Shuaib of stealing a sum of money from the GTB account of the deceased.