An Ikeja High Court, Lagos on Monday sentenced a 50-year-old Lagos prince, Adewale Oyekan to death for the murder of a 62-year-old businesswoman and a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaja Sikirat Ekun.
The Prince, who is the son of the late Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, the Oba of Lagos, was sentenced alongside his accomplice, one Lateef Balogun, a 27-year-old domestic staff.
The prince was said to have hired Balogun, whom he paid the sum of N6000 to kill Ekun.
The convicts, who have been incarcerated for seven years, murdered the businesswoman by strangling her and throwing her corpse into a 1,000-foot water well located in her home.
While delivering her judgement, Justice Raliatu Adebiyi said that the prosecution had proved the two-count charges of conspiracy to commit murder and murder beyond reasonable doubt.
Justice Adebiyi said: “The circumstantial evidence was strong and cogent, the act of the defendants in killing the deceased was intentional and premeditated.
“Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011 stipulates the punishment for the offence of murder as follows. Subject to the provisions of any other law, a person who commits the offence of murder shall be sentenced to death.
“Same is the punishment for conspiracy to commit murder as contained in Section 231 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.
“The above cited provisions of the law does not give the court any discretion whatsoever in sentencing the defendants.
“For this reason the first and second defendants are hereby sentenced accordingly on each of count one and two to death by hanging. May God, the giver of life, have mercy on your soul.”
New Telegraph