Hakeem Gbadamosi
An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, the state capital, has sentenced two persons, Ayuba Idris and Tasur Abubakar to death by hanging for armed robbery and murder.
The court also found them guilty of conspiracy and sentenced them to seven years imprisonment each for conspiracy.
The two men were brought before the court over the killing of one Mr Kwaku Richard Kwakye and his 27-year-old daughter, Tope Kwakye in their home on May 1, 2019.
The duo who were the security of the deceased had confessed to killing the father and daughter under the influence of tramadol and other dangerous drugs and strangled them to death.
The Counsel to the State, Mr John Dada, said the two security men, Idris, 24, and Abubakar, 27, were charged to court on five- counts.
He told the court that they killed the father and daughter and robbed them after killing them on May 1, 2019, around 8:30 pm at Ojomo Akintan Estate, Olufoam in Akure.
He said the offences contravene Sections 6(b),(1,2) (a) & (b), 324, 319, 319(1) of the Robbery and Firearms( Special Provisions) Act, Cap11, Volume 14, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
Dada told the court that the two accused were armed with dangerous weapons and killed their victims with motorcycle cable.
Delivering the judgement, Justice Williams Olamide said the prosecution failed to establish before the Court Counts 1 and 2 against the convicts and discharged and acquitted them of the two counts.
The judge, however, said the convicts are guilty of the offence of conspiracy contained in Count three and sentenced them to seven years imprisonment.
He also found them found guilty of Counts four and five and sentenced Idris and Abubakar to death by hanging by the neck until they are dead.
It will be recalled that the decomposing corpses of 71-year-old father Kwakye Kwaku Richard and his 27-year-old graduate daughter Kwakye Tope, were recovered by police some 16 days sixteen days after they were strangled to death by the two Hausa security guards
The two convicts confessed to killing their employer and her daughter under the influence of tramadol and other dangerous drugs, before running to Kano where they were arrested by police.
They confessed that ”We took tramadol and Indian hemp that night at about 8 pm and we invited the daughter to come and see who was at the gate.
”When she came down we used wire to strangle her. She shouted and this attracted her father who came running to the scene. We then descended on the father who fell inside the gutter and we killed him there.
” We later hid their corpses under the staircase in the estate and fled with some of their belongings”.
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