Ritual killers of LASU student in 2019 get death sentence

A high court sitting in Osun state has sentenced Segun Philip, a self-proclaimed prophet, and Owolabi Adeeko, a graduate of Lagos State University (LASU), to death over the murder of Favour Daley-Oladele.

BACKGROUND

Daley-Oladele, a final-year student of LASU, was killed at Ikoyi-Ile, Osun, in 2019.

Owolabi had confessed that he conspired with Philip to murder the deceased, who was his girlfriend, for money rituals.

Part of the concoction produced with the student’s mutilated body was also given to Bola Adeeko, Owolabi’s mother, for “spiritual cleansing”

“After I lodged her in a guest house, I took her to a house which I claimed to be my uncle’s house, knowing fully well that the place was a ritualists den,” he had said.

“I smashed a pestle on her head and she collapsed. The prophet thereafter used a knife and cutlass to dismember her body which was divided into three parts breasts, head, and legs with other vital parts.

“We buried the remaining part of her body beside Prophet Philip’s Church called ‘Solution Salvation Chapel’, while some vital parts were given to my mother to eat for spiritual cleansing.”

The trio were first arraigned for conspiracy and murder before a magistrate court in Apomu in 2020. They were later re-arraigned for murder and conspiracy in 2021 before a high court in Ikire.

DEATH SENTENCE

At the court session on Monday, Adeshina Olaniyan, counsel to the defendants, pleaded for leniency.

But in her ruling, Christiana Obadina, the presiding judge, sentenced the prophet and Owolabi to death by hanging for murder and 14 years imprisonment for conspiracy.

The judge also sentenced Owolabi’s mother to two years in jail for eating human flesh.

Obadina said the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.