Kwara State High Court has sentenced one Kazeem Mohammed to death by hanging for arranging with his accomplices to kill and dismember the body of one of his neighbours, Olokose Ojo Olushola, for ritual purposes.
The deceased who was in his 30s, was planning to get married in six days when his neighbour arranged for his gruesome murder.
Kazeem and three others, Madu Jeremiah, Mohammed Chatta and Jimoh Abdullateef, were arraigned before the court on an eight-count charge of criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide, illegal possession of firearms, illegal removal of human parts and kidnapping.
The police had told the court that the defendants had murdered their victim who was a staff of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Unit of the University of the Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) in May, 2021 and that the body of the deceased was later found without some parts inside a sack.
“The attackers collected his ATM card and withdrew N1.2m from his bank account. They further demanded N12m ransom from the family before they were arrested,” the police said.
Delivering judgement, Justice Suleiman Akanbi said:
“Despite killing the deceased, the defendants still demanded for ransom from the family; making it appear their victim was alive and held hostage by kidnappers.”
In a lengthy judgement, the first defendant, Kazeem, accused of masterminding the killing, was sentenced to death by hanging. The court also handed him an additional 20 years in prison to run concurrently with a N200,000 fine for other counts and life imprisonment for kidnapping.
The 2nd and 3rd defendants, Madu Jeremiah and Mohammed Chatta, were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, plus N100,000 fine each on two counts.
Jeremiah was further sentenced to three years imprisonment with a N200,000 fine.
The judge discharged the 4th defendant, Jimoh Abdullateef, on all counts on the ground that the prosecution did not prove the charges against him beyond a reasonable doubt.
