A 19-year-old trainee Islamic cleric under training, Abdulrofiu Zakariyahu, and two others were, on Monday, sentenced to death by an Osun State High Court for killing Oluwafemi Shonibare, a 400-level Microbiology student of the Osun State University.
Delivering judgement on the matter, Justice Kadijat Akano declared that the trio of Zakariyahu, Yusuf Kareem,18, and Ayuba Ibrahim, 20, were guilty of conspiracy, misconduct and murder of the late Shonibare.
The convicts perpetrated the crime on June 26, 2017 around 10pm in the Oke-Baale area of Osogbo, the Osun State capital. Zakariyahu, who claimed to be a trainee cleric, his friend, Kareem, and a student of the Open University, Ibrahim, were arrested in connection with the crime.
Under interrogation by the police, they confessed to killing the deceased with a pestle. They also dismembered the victim’s body and roasted his head with the aim of using it for money rituals.
The convicts later buried Shonibare’s remains at the back of a compound belonging to Isiaq Yusuf, the leader of the Jafariya sect, in the Oke-Baale area of Osogbo.
The state had arraigned Zakariyahu, Yusuf, Ibrahim, 40-year-old Isiaq and Abdulkareen Adeoti, 50, for the murder of Shonibare.
In her judgement, Justice Akano said the prosecution proved its case that Zakariyahu, Kareem and Ibrahim caused the death of the deceased.
Akano said Zakariyahu confessed in his statement that he killed the deceased adding that the prosecution, during the trial, was able to prove that the 2nd and 3rd defendants, Kareem and Ibrahim, assisted the 1st defendant in the killing.
She stated that there was no concrete evidence that the fourth accused, Isiaq, the leader of the Jafariya sect, was involved in the killing, and subsequently discharged and acquitted him.
The court, however, observed that Adeoti knew that the convicts had killed the deceased and did not report to the police until the perpetrators were arrested. Akano sentenced Adeoti to two years in prison.