3 to die for raping 24-year-old undergraduate to death

A Kwara State High Court has sentenced to death by hanging three of the eight accused persons alleged to have raped and murdered a 24-year-old University of Ilorin student, Blessing Omowumi Olajide on 2nd June 2021.

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 rape.

Justice Ibrahim Adebayo Yusuf on Tuesday ruled that the three convicts were found guilty of culpable homicide punishable with death, conspiracy to commit robbery and cospiracy to murder.

The prosecution counsel, Salman Jawondo gave a summary of the judgment. In a chat with journalists, the former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state 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 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 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”.

Eight accused persons were brought before the court in Ilorin on allegations of rape and murder of the student.

The suspects are Ismail Abdulazeez, Moses Oluwatimileyin Ajala (aka Jacklord), Timileyin Omogbolahan Oyeyemi, Shuaib Abdulkarim (aka Easy), Kareem Rasheed Oshioyemi (Rashworld), Abdulrahman Abdullateef, Daud Bashir Adebayo (aka Bashman) and Akande Taiye Oladoja.

The Kwara State Police Command had confirmed the suspected raped and murdered the 300 Level student at her residence located at Tanke area of the Ilorin metropolis.

She was said to be living with her elder sister, Dr Dupe Shittu and was a student of the Agricultural Science Department. She hailed from Oke-Opin community in the Ekiti Local Government Area of the state.

Three of the defendants — Abdulazeez, Ajala and Oyeyemi — 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 Ismail, Rasheed and Shuaib of stealing a sum of money from the GTB account of the deceased.