Nigeria

Court sentences son of late Oba of Lagos to death

Tuesday, December 17, 2019 at 8:38 AM by Nnenna Ibeh

- Adewale Oyekan, a son to a former Oba of Lagos, has been sentenced to the death

- The prosecution had accused Adewale of killing a 62-year-old businesswoman alongside another domestic staff

- Delivering its judgement, the court said that the circumstantial evidence against the convicts was strong and cogent

A son to the former Oba of Lagos, late Adeyinka Oyekan, has been sentenced to death by Federal High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos state.

Adewale accused of killing a 62-year-old businesswoman, Sikirat Ekun was sentenced alongside Lateef Balogun, a former domestic staff.

The Cable reports that Adewale was said to have hired Balogun to kill Ekun for a paltry sum of N6,000 and had the body of the businesswoman who was also a politician thrown into a 1,000 feet well at her residence.

The convicts were also held in custody for seven years since their arrest.

Delivering a two-hour judgment on the matter, Justice Raliatu Adebiyi said, the prosecution during the process proved beyond every reasonable doubt that the convicts committed the crime.

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Adebiyi also said that the circumstantial evidence against the convicts was strong and cogent and that the act of the defendants in killing the deceased was intentional and premeditated.

“The court finds that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt the offences of conspiracy and murder, and the defendants are accordingly found guilty of the two-count charge.

“Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011, stipulates the punishment for the offence of murder as follows," Adebiyi said.

She also said that the law provides that a person who commits murder shall be sentenced to death as contained in Section 231 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

“For this reason, the first and second defendants are hereby sentenced on each of counts one and two, to death by hanging. May God, the giver of life, have mercy on your souls," the judge said.

Court sentences son of late Oba of Lagos to death — The judge said that the circumstantial evidence against the convicts was strong and cogent
Source: UGC

The prosecuting counsel, Akin George, had during the arraignment told the court that the suspects committed the offences at 1 am on October 17, 2012, at the home of the deceased located at 5, Babatunde Lalega street, Omole Phase One, Lagos.

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George said the late businesswoman knew Oyekan due to her friendship with his late mother and had employed him to work as a manager in her restaurant while Balogun, a former domestic staff of Ekun, who was employed by her to take care of her elderly father.

According to George, the second defendant's employment was terminated after a dispute between the deceased.

“The convicts conspired, killed the deceased and threw her corpse in a well within the premises of her home, and took over her businesses and property including a bus which was sold for N170,000," the counsel said.

“When an inquiry was made by family and friends about her whereabouts, Mr Oyekan informed them that she travelled to Abuja for the Ileya (Eid-el Kabir) festival. He passed this information by sending a text message from Mrs Ekun’s mobile phone," he added.

George noted that worry from the family of the deceased prompted a search which led to the discovery of her corpse inside the well in December 2012 - two months after her death.