Omowumi: Three Unilorin students bag death sentence for sexual assault, murder

Justice Ibrahim Adebayo Yusuf of Kwara State High Court, Ilorin, yesterday convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, three of the eight accused persons alleged to have sexually assaulted and murdered a 24-year-old  student of University of Ilorin, Olajide Blessing Omowumi on June 2, 2021.
   
Justice Yusuf found the three convicts guilty of culpable homicide punishable with death, conspiracies to commit robbery and murder. They are to be hanged till no life would remain in them.
 
The accused were brought before the court by the state government in suit No KWS/33c/c/2021 on 11-count charge bordering on armed robbery, illegal possession of firearms and sexual assault,
 

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 conspiracy to murder.  They were accordingly sentenced to death. That’s maximum. The court has no discretion to exercise by virtue of provision of the armed robbery Act, it’s death sentence. 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 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 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.
 

The suspects 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,
Recall that the Kwara State Police Command had confirmed the suspected rape and murder of a 300 Level student of the University of Ilorin in her residence located at Tanke area of the Ilorin metropolis on June 2, 2021.
 
The deceased, said to be staying with her elder sister, Dr. Dupe Shittu, at Tanke area until her death, was a student of the Agricultural Science Department from Oke-Opin community in the Ekiti Local Council of Kwara State.