Killers of UNILORIN female student to die by hanging

After about one and half years of legal tussle, an Ilorin high court on Tuesday sentenced the killers of Olajide Blessing Omowumi, a 300-level student of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), to death by hanging.

In June last year, Omowumi was raped and murdered in a merciless manner by the assailants.

According to NAN, Ibrahim Yusuf, the presiding judge, convicted the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd suspects — Abdulazeez Ismail, Ajala Oluwatimileyin, and Oyeyemi Omogbolahan respectively — for the offences of culpable homicide and armed robbery.

The judge also ordered that they should die by hanging.

“I direct you Abdulazeez Ismail, Ajala Oluwatimileyin, and Oyeyemi Omogbolahan, should be hanged by the neck until you’re pronounced dead,” Yusuf declared.

The court also sentenced the 4th and 5th suspects to three years imprisonment for the offence of theft.

Earlier, the court discharged and acquitted the 6th, 7th, and 8th suspects — Abdullateef Abdulrahman, Daud Aderayo and Akande Oladoja — on the basis that they were not found guilty of any charges against them.

According to the judgment, the student’s lifeless body was found with bruises all over. Her hands were said to have been tied to the back while a towel covered her face.

The judge added that the conventional statement which could be relied upon on the basis of law revealed that the deceased struggled with the killers until she was pushed and fell, while the 1st and 3rd convicts held her down for the 2nd convict to perpetrate the heinous crime of rape.

He said the deceased was raped to death on June 2, 2021, at her guardian’s residence in the Tanke area of Ilorin, and a piece of paper was dropped on her chest with a message containing: “No forgiveness for UNILORIN student”.

According to the judgment, Ismail, Oluwatimileyin and Omogbolahan conspired among themselves to rob the deceased of her Samsung Galaxy A2 Core handset, one black Acer Aspire laptop, and one Samsung drive, among several other items.

The killers were tried on 11-count charges bordering on murder, rape, armed robbery, and illegal possession of firearms, among others.

Reacting to the judgment, Salman Jawondo, the prosecution counsel, said justice had caught up with the culprits.

“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,” Jawondo said.

“They were accordingly sentenced to death. That’s the maximum. There’s no discretion for the court to exercise by virtue of the provision of the Armed Robbery Act, its death.

“So also by virtue of Section 221 of the Penal Code, it’s a 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, it’s neither here nor there. When somebody is condemned, 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 the 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 fortunate. If you look at their involvement, they only assisted to dispose of property stolen.

“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.”