BRT driver to daath by hanging for killing Bamise Ayanwola
In a judgment that lasted more than two and half hours, Justice Serifat Sonaike held that the prosecution, the Lagos State Government, has successfully proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the offence.
That for the death of Oluwabamise Ayanwola, you will hang till you are dead. May God have mercy upon you.”
The court’s verdict rested solely on a series of circumstantial evidence, the evidence of the pathologist, and the dying declaration of the victim, all of which were duly upheld by the judge as pointing only to the defendant as the last person to see her alive before her demise on February 26, 2022.
The court has found the defendant guilty of committing a forceful sexual assault against a 29-year-old woman, Nneka Maryjane Ozezulu, on November 25, 2021.
The court also noted raping numerous female passengers in his BRT bus as supported by the extrajudicial statements of two such victims of his crime-the testimony of Ozezulu and the terrifying voice note sent out by Bamise just before she died.
The court said this voice note showed that Bamise did not consent to sexual intercourse with him.
Allegation Of Rape Not Proved The court, however, held that medical reports neither showed that the late Bamise was penetrated nor was any semen found in her.
The court also acquitted the accused for the charge of conspiracy, holding that it had not been proved by the prosecution.
The prosecution, represented by the Director of Public Prosecution in Lagos, Dr Babajide Martins, urged the court to impose maximum hinged sentences, while the defense counsel, Abayomi Omotubora, pleaded with the judge in his allocutus to temper justice with mercy.
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