AN Ekiti State High Court has sentenced two men to death by hanging for the kidnapping of an official of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Omoboade Adesina, on April 22, 2022.
News Point Nigeria reports that the convicts, Ibrahim Abubakar and Abdullahi Abubakar, were found guilty of abducting Adesina after the court held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. However, a third defendant, Usman Abubakar, was discharged and acquitted after the court ruled that there was insufficient evidence linking him to the crime.
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The three defendants were arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) following investigations into the abduction and were subsequently arraigned before the court.
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Delivering judgment, the Chief Judge of Ekiti State, Lekan Ogunmoye, convicted Ibrahim Abubakar and Abdullahi Abubakar and sentenced both men to death by hanging. The judge held that the prosecution successfully established their culpability beyond reasonable doubt.
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Justice Ogunmoye said the identification parade conducted during the investigation, alongside the analysis of call data records, constituted crucial evidence that directly linked the two convicts to the kidnapping of the NYSC official.
The court, however, discharged and acquitted Usman Abubakar after finding that the prosecution failed to establish his involvement in the offence or connect him with the kidnapping.
