A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin, the state capital, has sentenced an Islamic cleric, Abdulrahman Bello, to death by hanging for the murder of 24-year-old Hafsoh Yetunde Lawal, a final-year student of the Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin.
Delivering judgment on Thursday after four months of trial, Justice Hannah Ajayi found Bello guilty of killing the victim, who was reportedly his Facebook lover.
The court, however, discharged and acquitted four co-defendants: Ahmed Abdulwasiu (41), Suleiman Muyideen (28), Jamiu Uthman (29), and Abdulrahmon Jamiu (31), who were initially arraigned alongside Bello.
Bello had confessed at the beginning of the trial to killing Lawal for money rituals, claiming he needed human hands for the purpose.
He identified himself as an Islamic cleric and admitted to carrying out the act alone.
Lawal had gone to attend a friend’s naming ceremony when Bello invited her to his residence around the Offa garage area of Ilorin.
(PUNCH, excluding headline)
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