The Ogun State High Court in Abeokuta on Monday sentenced three persons to death for killing a couple, Kehinde and Bukola Fatinoye and their son, Oreoluwa, on 1 January 2023.
Trial judge Basirat Adebowale sentenced the trio – Lekan Adekanbi, was the family’s driver, Odetola Ahmed and Adeniyi Waheed – in a judgement which lasted for more than three hours
The three convicts were prosecuted alongside others, including Temitope Fadairo and Adenike Adekanbi, wife and mother respectively of the first defendant, Mr Adekanbi.
The rest are Anuoluwapo Owolaja, Azeez Usman, Abass Odetola and Lukmon Adewusi.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the defendants were charged with 24 counts of armed robbery, armed robbery, conspiracy to murder, murder, arson, escape from lawful custody, perverting the course of justice and receiving stolen property, among others.
They all pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Gruesome murder
The assailants reportedly trailed Mr Fatinoye, a former employee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and his wife, Bukola, alongside their son, Oreoluwa, as they were returning home from the 2022/2023 crossover service at the Christ Anglican Church Iporo-Ake, Abeokuta.
The couple who lived at Oba Karunwi Road, a street behind former Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s residence, in Ibara GRA, Abeokuta, at about 1:30 a.m. were robbed, gruesomely murdered and their house set ablaze.
The assailants reportedly tied their son, Oreoluwa, and adopted son, Felix, with ropes and threw them into a river along Adigbe-Obada Road.
Penalties
Delivering judgement on Monday, the judge held that the prosecution proved its cases against the three defendants beyond reasonable doubt.
She found the three principal defendants guilty of murder.
The judge held that the convicts did not deserve mercy, as their lawyers had requested, because of the way they killed the couple and their son.
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She convicted them of counts one to nine, handing them death by hanging or lethal injection, life imprisonment with hard labour, 14 years imprisonment among others for the various offences.
“The sentence of this court on Adekambi Lekan in respect of count II is that you be hanged by neck until you’re dead or by lethal injection.
“May God have mercy on your soul,” the court held.
The judge also convicted Ms Fadairo, the wife of Mr Adekanbi, to two years imprisonment for perverting the course of justice by hiding her husband.
Meanwhile, Mr Adekanbi’s mother, Adenike, was also sentenced to one year imprisonment for making false statements to police officers.
Mr Usman, a welder, was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for receiving stolen property; two years as an accessory of the fact of armed robbery and seven years for compounding felonies.
The jail terms are to run concurrently with hard labour.
While Mr Owolaja was sentenced to two years imprisonment as an accessory after the fact of murder, Messrs Odetola and Adewusi were discharged of the offences preferred against them.
From armed robbery to gruesome murder
Earlier, the prosecuting lawyer, Adefisoye Temilola, told the court that the trio committed the offences on 1 January 2023 at Karounwi Street, Ibara Housing Estate in Abeokuta.
Mrs Temilola said Mr Adekanbi, who was the driver to the couple, conspired with Messrs Odetola and Adeniyi to rob and murder the couple.
She said the three convicts, while armed with a gun, hammer and cutlass, robbed Fatinoye of the sum of N1.102 million and one Hyundai vehicle, valued at N12 million.
She also said they robbed the wife, Bukola, of her phones, valued at N1 million.
According to the prosecutor, Mr Adekanbi used a sledgehammer to hit Bukola on the head and slashed her neck.
She further explained that after the robbery, Adeniyi slaughtered Mr Fatinoye with a knife to the neck.
According to her, the house was later set ablaze and the couple’s only son, Oreoluwa, was thrown into Ogun River with hands and legs tied, which led to his death.
(NAN)
