NIGERIA: COURT SENTENCES LAGOS PRINCE TO DEATH FOR MURDER
February 21, 2020: Justice Raliatu Adebiyi of an Ikeja High Court on 16 December 2019 sentenced to death, Prince Adewale Oyekan, the son of the late Oba of Lagos, Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, for the murder of Alhaja Sikirat Ekun, a 62-year-old businesswoman and a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Prince Oyekan, 50, was sentenced to death alongside Lateef Balogun, 27, a former domestic staff of the deceased, who was hired for N6,000 to carry out the murder of his employer. The convicts who have been in custody for seven years, murdered Ekun by strangling her and throwing her corpse into a 1,000-feet well located in her home. Delivering judgment, Justice Adebiyi held that the prosecution has proved the charges of conspiracy to commit murder and murder beyond reasonable doubt. According to the prosecution, the deceased was a restaurateur who knew Oyekan due to her friendship with his late mother. To render assistance to the prince, Ekun employed him as the manager of her restaurant. "Balogun, the second defendant, was a former domestic staff of Ekun who was employed by her to take care of her elderly father. His employment was however terminated following a dispute with Ekun. "The convicts conspired, killed the deceased and threw her corpse in a well within the premises of her home and took over her businesses and property, including her bus, which was sold for N170,000”, Adebiyi said. (Sources: This Day, 17/12/2019)
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