Court Sentence Suspects Involve in Rape and Murder of Unilorin Student to Death by Hanging

After one and half year of legal battle, an Ilorin High Court, today, sentenced suspects who raped and murdered Olajide Blessing Omowumi, a 300-level student of the University of Ilorin to death by hanging.

The trial judge, Justice Ibrahim Yusuf who handed down the judgment, convicted 1st, 2nd, and 3rd suspects; Abdulazeez Ismail, Ajala Oluwatimileyin, and Oyeyemi Omogbolahan, for the offenses of culpable homicide and armed robbery and are to be hung by the neck until they’re pronounced dead.

The 2nd suspect who was found guilty of rape was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment which is to run concurrently while the 1st, 4th, and 5th bagged 3 years imprisonment for the offense of theft.

Earlier, the court discharged and acquitted the 6th, 7th, and 8th suspects; Abdullateef Abdulrahman, Daud Bashir Aderayo, and Akande Taiye Oladoja on the basis that they are not found guilty of any charges against them.

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 a summary of the court judgment.

“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 maximum. There’s no discretion for the court to exercise by virtue of provision of the Armed Robbery Act, its 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, 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 the instrumentality of the fourth and fifth defendants, who are experts in computer manipulation, and collected some money through transfer, totalling about N149,000. They were convicted of 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.

It would be recalled that the deceased was raped to death on June 2, 2021, at her sister’s residence in Tanke area, Ilorin.