An Ekiti State High Court sitting in Ado Ekiti has sentenced four men to death by hanging for kidnapping and murdering a man, Chief Ajayi Emmanuel.
The defendants were arraigned before Justice Olalekan Olatawura on September 1, 2022, on four counts bordering on conspiracy, kidnapping, murder and illegal possession of firearms.
According to the prosecution, the defendants conspired on May 5, 2022, around the Immigration Office in Ado Ekiti, to kidnap and murder Emmanuel.
The prosecution further alleged that the defendants abducted Emmanuel from his residence and later killed him. Four locally made cut-to-size single-barrel guns and 13 live cartridges were also reportedly recovered from their possession.
During the trial, a police officer, Sergeant Oladele Ayodeji, told the court that one of the suspects, Akeem Banjo Adebayo, who later escaped, was arrested at a robbery scene in Ekute, Ado Ekiti.
The officer said Adebayo confessed during interrogation to being a kidnapper and mentioned Jimoh Dele and Bunmi Ogunremi as members of his gang.
He added that other defendants were arrested at different locations, while a police search led to the recovery of four cut-to-size guns, 13 live cartridges and other items allegedly concealed in a sack at Dele’s residence.
To establish its case, the prosecution, led by Kunle-Shina Adeyemo, called two witnesses and tendered several exhibits, including the defendants’ statements, four locally made guns, a video disc and a medical report from ABUAD Multisystem Hospital.
The defendants, through their respective counsel, Adeyinka Opaleke and Olugbolaga Sunday, testified in their defence but did not call any witnesses.
In his judgment, Justice Olatawura described the first, second and third defendants as serial kidnappers, armed robbers and housebreakers, while describing Ogunremi as an ex-convict.
The judge said the society would be better off with people of such criminal disposition permanently removed from it, adding that the punishments prescribed for the offences left the court with no discretion.
The court sentenced each of the defendants to 21 years’ imprisonment for conspiracy. Dele was also sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and fined N20,000 for illegal possession of firearms, while the other defendants were discharged and acquitted on that count.
However, on the charges of kidnapping and murder, the court sentenced all four defendants to death by hanging.
Justice Olatawura pronounced that they be “hanged by the neck until they are dead,” adding, “May God have mercy on your souls.”
The sentences are to run concurrently.
