Court Sentences BRT Driver To Death For Killing Bamise

A LAGOS State High Court, sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square Annexe, has sentenced Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) driver, Andrew Ominikoron, to death by hanging for the murder of 22-year-old Oluwabamise Ayanwola, simply called Bamise.
Ominikoron was arraigned on a five-count charge bordering on murder, conspiracy and rape, in connection with the death of Bamise, as well as the sexual assault of Dr. Anosike Victoria and the rape of one Maryjane Ojiezelu.
Ominikoron, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Delivering her judgment that lasted over two and half hours on Friday, May 2, Justice Sherifat Sonaike held that the prosecuter- the Lagos State Government- had successfully proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, declaring: “For the death of Oluwabamise Ayanwola, you will be hanged by the neck until you are dead.
“May God have mercy upon you.”
According to the charges, the incident occurred on February 26, 2022, around 7pm, near the Lekki-Ajah Conservation Centre, Lekki-Ajah Expressway, Lagos.
The prosecution alleged that Ominikoron had forcibly had sexual intercourse with Bamise before murdering her, thereby contravening Sections 411, 223, 260 and 165 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
Bamise was last seen on February 26, 2022, after she boarded a BRT bus driven by Ominikoron in the Ajah area of Lagos. Her disappearance triggered widespread outrage and a city-wide search.
Her body was discovered nine days later on Carter Bridge on Lagos Island.
In the course of the trial, the state called 11 witnesses, who testified against the convict.
Ominikoron, who opened his defence on October 17, last year, denied raping nor killing Bamise.
Led in his defence by his Counsel, Abayomi Omotubora, he told the court that he picked Bamise at Chevron and at Agungi, he picked three male passengers.
According to him, one of the male passengers was coming forward and he thought it was to pay him, but the passenger threw something at his head and showed him a gun, asking him to cooperate.
Although there was no eyewitness account, the court relied on a series of circumstantial evidence, the evidence of the pathologist and the dying declaration of the victim, all of which the Judge ruled, pointed solely to the convict as the last person to see her before her death on February 26, 2022.
The court also convicted the defendant for the rape of a 29-year-old lady, Nneka Maryjane Ojiezelu, on November 25, 2021.
It noted that the defendant had a history of raping female passengers in his BRT bus, as submitted by the extrajudicial statements of two victims of his crime, the testimony of Ojiezelu and the terrifying voice note sent out by Bamise just before she died.
The court said the voice note indicated that Bamise did not consent to sexual intercourse with the defendant.
The court, however, held that medical reports neither showed that Bamise was penetrated nor was any semen found in her, indicating that the action of rape was not concluded or that it failed.
It, therefore, discharged the defendant on the offence of rape of Bamise, but found him guilty for the lesser offence of attempted rape, which was successfully proved by the prosecution.
The court also discharged the defendant on the offence of conspiracy, insisting that the prosecution had not proved the same.
The prosecution, led by the state Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Dr. Babajide Martins, had asked the court to apply the maximum sentence, while the defence Counsel, Omotubora, pleaded in his allocutus that the Judge should temper justice with mercy.