THREE of the eight accused persons alleged to have raped and murdered 24-year-old University of Ilorin student, Olajide Blessing Omowumi, on June 2, last year have been convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.
The accused were arraigned before the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin by the state government in suit No KWS/33c/c/2021 on 11-count charge bordering on armed robbery, illegal possession of firearms and rape.
In his judgment, yesterday, Justice Ibrahim Adebayo Yusuf found the three convicts guilty of culpable homicide punishable with death, conspiracies to commit robbery and murder.
The three sentenced to death, 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 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 weapon, 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.
Speaking on the judgment, the prosecution Counsel and former attorney general and commissioner for Justice in the state, Salman Jawondo, spoke to journalists after the court session: “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. They were accordingly sentenced to death.
“That’s the maximum; there’s no discretion for the court to exercise by virtue of provision of the Armed Robbery Act. 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, because 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 and accordingly sentenced to three years imprisonment to run concurrently. For conspiracy, one year and 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 the whiskers, as 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.”
The eight accused persons are 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 state Police Command had earlier confirmed the suspected rape and murder of the 300-Level student in her residence located at Tanke area of Ilorin metropolis on June 2, last year.
The deceased, said to be staying with her elder sister, Dr. Dupe Shittu, until her death, was a student of the Agricultural Science Department and hailed from Oke-Opin community in the Ekiti Local Government Area of the state.
