L-R: Bello, Hafsoh
By Bushrah Ahmed
A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin, the state capital has sentenced a money ritual killer, Abdulrahman Bello, to death by hanging for killing a female student, Hafsoh Lawal.
The victim was until her brutal murder a final year student of the College of Education, Ilorin.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, the trial judge, Justice Hannah Ahayi, held that all available evidences before the court had proved that Hafsoh was killed in order to be used for money ritual and trading in human parts.
She described Bello’s murder of Hafsoh as “cruel, wicked, and an extreme display of human wickedness.”
The judge also held that Bello’s claimed confession of love for the victim and his plan to marry her, were all concocted lies to lure her to his residence in order to kill her.
According to Justice Lawal, Bello was beyond reasonable doubt guilty as charged for the heinous crime.
The court therefore sentenced the convict to death by hanging.
It further held that the only remedy available for Hafsoh and her grieving family was the ultimate punishment of death for the culprit.
It however cleared four other suspects, who were earlier arraigned with him over the murder of wrong doing and set them free.
They are: Ahmed Abdulwasiu, Jamiu Uthman, Suleiman Muyideen, and Abdulrahman Jamiu,
Periscope International recalls that earlier on Feb. 10, the victim had suddenly departed from a naming ceremony which she attended after receiving a phone call.
She went missing thereafter following which her father, Adefalu Lawal, reported the incident to the police after a day-long search proved futile.
Police investigators later traced her last phone communications to the convict.
Investigations led them to Bello, as he was the last person to contact Hafsoh before her disappearance.
Prosecutors told the court during trial that Bello was subsequently arrested four days after on Feb. 14, in the Isale Koto area of Ilorin.
They averred that he later led the police to his residence on February 15, where the palm of the deceased’s hand and a bottle filled with her blood and personal belonging were found in his room.
A cutlass which was used in dismembering the deceased’s body were also found in his bedroom.
Other parts of her decomposed body were later found at a nearby dumpsite in Ilorin, they told the court.
