Kwara State High Court, Ilorin
convicted and sentenced three of the eight accused persons in the rape and murder of 24-year-old Olajide Blessing Omowumi from the University of Ilorin.
The crime was committed on June 2, 2021.
Two were to die by hanging, while the other was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Court.
The accused persons were brought before the court by the Kwara State government in suit No KWS/33c/c/2021 on an 11-count charge bordering on armed robbery, illegal possession of firearms, and rape.
Justice Ibrahim Adebayo Yusuf of the Kwara state High Court, Ilorin on Tuesday, ruled that the three convicts were found guilty of culpable homicide punishable with death, conspiracy to commit robbery, rape, and conspiracy to murder.
The 165-typewritten-page judgement, got almost the whole courtroom shedding tears while being read by Justice Yusuf. It also saw the judge weeping openly for more than two minutes while recounting how the deceased was raped, leading to her death.
According to the judge, the gang had the intention of theft and rape without the intention to kill, however, their act led to homicide.
Speaking on the judgement, the prosecution counsel and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Salman Jawondo, who started the case as Attorney General of Kwara State, concluded it as a private legal practitioner on pro bono service.
Jawondo after the court session spoke to journalists.
He 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 cospiracy to murder. They were accordingly sentenced to death. That’s maximum. There’s no discretion for the court to exercise by virtue of provision of the armed robbery Act, it’s 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.”
Jawondo resigned his position to contest in the APC primaries for the 2023 general elections.
