Court Sentences Ekiti Lecturer to Death by Hanging for Armed Robbery

A An Ekiti State High Court has sentenced a lecturer, Shittu Isiaka, to death by hanging after finding him guilty of armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Oladimeji Adejumo held that the prosecution successfully proved the charges of conspiracy and armed robbery against the defendant beyond reasonable doubt.

During the trial, the victim, Olowoyeye, narrated how he escaped from his attackers after the incident. According to him, he managed to roll through the bush until he reached a highway where police patrol officers rescued him and rushed him to a hospital for medical attention.

The victim told the court that he passed bloody urine for several days following the attack and spent about 15 days receiving treatment.

A police witness, Inspector Kehinde Omotosho, also testified before the court that highway patrol officers brought the victim to the police station in Igbara-Oke, where he made a statement implicating Isiaka in the robbery.

However, the defendant denied all allegations during the proceedings. Isiaka told the court that he was not involved in the robbery and rejected claims that he injected the victim with any substance.

The suspect argued that he was not a medical practitioner and therefore had no licence to administer injections. He further maintained that investigators failed to present any syringe or item allegedly used in committing the offence. According to him, no medical report was presented to support the victim’s claim.

In her judgment, Justice Adejumo ruled that the prosecution failed to establish the offence of endangering life as required under Section 135(1) of the Evidence Act.

The judge noted that there were no eyewitness accounts of the alleged injection and no medical report was tendered to support the victim’s claim. She stated that it would be unsafe for the court to rely solely on the testimonies of the victim and another witness without supporting medical evidence.

Consequently, the court acquitted Isiaka on the third count bordering on endangering life.

However, the court held that sufficient evidence had been presented linking the defendant to the armed robbery.

Justice Adejumo therefore convicted Isiaka on the counts of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and armed robbery, sentencing him to life imprisonment for conspiracy and death by hanging for armed robbery.

“The sentence of the court upon you is that you be hanged by the neck until you are dead,” the judge declared.