Yejid Benga-Ogundair
Nearly three years after the painter Olaniyi Abegunde, 37, was arrested and charged with two counts of near-murder and armed robbery, he has been found guilty of murdering missionary Grace Ajibola, a missionary of the Church of Christ Apostolic (CAC), Oke Imole , Agbeni, Ibadan will spend a few weeks of her 70th birthday at her home on Tuesday morning, March 17, 2020.
Judge KB Olawoyin of Oyo State Fiat Court 3, sitting in Iyaganku, Ibadan on Thursday, found Olaniyi guilty of two counts of armed robbery and murder and convicted on two charges.
In his sentencing, Judge Olavoin told lawyers that no lawyers were required to distribute the funds because the charges were related to capital offenses.
He sentenced Oraniyi to “hanging or lethal injection” for each charge.
The court held that the prosecution led by Ms. KK Oloso, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Department of Justice of Oyo State, and S. A Osuolale had proved their case beyond any doubt that Olaniyi committed the crimes alleged, adding five The testimony of several prosecution witnesses, including Dr Clement Abu Okolo, a pathologist at University College Hospital, who performed an autopsy on the late Buddle Match, matched the testimony of the accused himself and two other witnesses.
Judge Olawoyin further ruled that Olaniyi failed to substantiate his claim that he made the confession after being tortured and found his statement in court to be an outright lie as his testimony matched what he had written in his statement . There is no evidence that he was tortured.
Less than an hour after the murder of missionary Ajibola, he was caught using one of her cards to withdraw N120,000 N120,000 from her account in three installments, as well as closed-circuit television (CCTV) images from the ATM house of the deceased A nearby bank showed Oraniyi’s photo, which the prosecution presented as evidence.
Oraniyi was arraigned in March 2021 after his arrest in Akure, Ondo state on March 25, 2020, at the age of 34, for killing missionary Ajibola, a retiree, More than N2 million was found in her bank account and she fled with her three Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards, MTN SIM card and other valuables.
According to eyewitness testimony, the deceased hired Oraniyi as a painter in November 2019 and was so impressed with his good work that he took a liking to him and he became a regular visitor to the house; running errands for her, including Go to an ATM to withdraw money for her, drive a car and eat at her house.
On one such errand, he decided to check her account balance and found she had over N2 million, which led him to beat and strangle her a week later with a stick which was recovered by the police and strangled killed her, and absconded to Akure.
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