BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Justice K. B. Olawoyin, of the Oyo State High Court 3, sitting in Iyaganku, Ibadan, Oyo State, on Thursday, sentenced a 37- year-old painter, Olaniyi Abegunde, to death by hanging for the murder of a 69-year-old woman, Grace Ajibola over money.
Late Ajibola, an evangelist with the Christ Apostolic Church, Oke Imole, Agbeni, Ibadan, was killed a few weeks before her 70th birthday in her home on Tuesday, March 17, 2020.
Delivering the judgment, the court found Olaniyi guilty of the two counts of armed robbery and murder and sentenced him to death on the two charges.
For each count charge, Justice Olawoyin sentenced the convict to “death by hanging by the neck till death or by lethal injection.”
Olaniyi had been found to have used one of the deceased’s cards to withdraw N120,000 in three installments of N40,000 each from her account barely an hour after murdering the evangelist.
The prosecution presented the images from the Close Circuit Television of the ATM in a bank near the deceased house, showing Olaniyi’s image, as evidence.
According to witness testimony, the deceased had engaged Olaniyi’s services in November 2019 as a painter and, impressed by his excellent job, had taken a liking to him.
He became a regular face in the house, running errands for her, including going to the ATM to collect money for her.
On one of such errands, he decided to check her account balance and found she had over N2 million, which led to him killing her a week later by hitting her with a stick which was recovered by the police, and strangling her before absconding to Akure, Ondo State.
