The Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, the state capital, has sentenced three persons to death for killing Mrs Funke Olakunrin, the daughter of the leader of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation (Afenifere), Chief Reuben Fasoranti.
The convicts are Awalu Abubakar, Muhammed Shehu, and Adamu Adamu.
The presiding judge, Justice Williams Olamide, convicted the trio for offences bordering on murder, kidnapping, and armed robbery.
Justice Olamide, however, discharged and acquitted the fourth suspect, Auwàla Abubakar, who is the spokesman of Miyetti Allah.
It would be recalled that the daughter of the Afenifere leader was killed by the convicts along the Benin-Ore-Shagamu Expressway in the Ore Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State in June 2019 on her way to Lagos State.
Olakunrin was buried a few weeks after her gruesome murder by the gunmen
Her alleged killers were later arrested and arraigned, six months after her death.
The convicts were first arraigned in an Akure Magistrates’ Court, which ordered their remand in Owo Correctional Centre.
They later had no representation in court but pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
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The Ondo State Attorney-General, Kola Olawoye, who represented the state, declared that the state government was ready to take over the case.
He urged the court to rely on the statement deposed by an official of FSARs, Akeem Ogunjobi, who prayed that the suspects should be remanded at the Correctional Centre in Owo because Akure Correctional facility was overstretched.
He also pleaded with the court to allow the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to conduct COVID-19 test on the defendants before moving them to the Correctional Centre.
According to him, the test was necessary because of the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the globe. He said the health status of the four accused persons must be ascertained in order not to infect other inmates at the facility.
Magistrate Victoria Bob-Manuel, in her ruling, granted the prayers of the prosecuting counsel and remanded the accused at Owo Correctional facility. She also ordered that their samples must be tested before being remanded at the centre.
Bob-Manuel, however, disclosed that the court lacks the jurisdiction to try the defendants but adjourned the case to June 3, for the advice of the Director of Public Prosecution.
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