Three of the eight accused persons that raped and murdered a 24-year-old student of the University of Ilorin, Olajide Blessing Omowumi, on June 2, 2021, were on Tuesday sentenced to death by a Kwara State High Court, sitting in Ilorin, the State capital.

The three convicts and others were brought before the court by the Kwara 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 judgement, Justice Ibrahim Adebayo Yusuf said the three convicts were guilty of culpable homicide, punishable with death, conspiracy to commit robbery and cospiracy to murder.

The prosecution counsel and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Kwara State, Barr. Salman Jawondo (SAN), who spoke with journalists after the court session, gave summary of the court judgement.

“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 stolen property.

“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,” he said.

The eight accused were 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.

LEADERSHIP recalls that the Kwara State Police Command had confirmed the raping and murder of Olajide in her residence located at Tanke area of Ilorin metropolis on June 2, 2021.