NURTW Chairman Sentenced To Death By Hanging For Killing A Policeman
Earlier today, an Ikeja High Court sentenced the Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Boundary/Aiyetoro Unit, Lagos State identified as Saheed Arogundade to death for the murder of a 32-year-old policeman identified as Gbenga Oladipupo.
Justice Olabisi Akinlade of the Ikeja High Court discharged and acquitted Arogundade’s five co-defendants identified respectively as Mustapha Layeni, Adebayo Abdullahi, Seyi Pabiekun, Sikiru Rufai and Yusuf Arogundade of a two-count charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
Prior to delivering the judgment, for security reasons and to prevent disruption of proceedings, the judge ordered that the courtroom should be locked and the keys kept with her.
The Judge, Justice Akinlade said in a statement:
“The prosecution counsel has been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt, the ingredients of conspiracy to commit murder and murder against the first defendant (convict).
I, therefore, pronounce the first defendant guilty as charged on the counts of conspiracy to commit murder and murder.
I hereby pronounce the sentence of the court upon you Saheed Arogundade that you be hanged from the neck until you are dead. May God have mercy upon your soul.”
When the sentence was pronounced, Arogundade collapsed in the dock while his relatives began to cry in the courtroom gallery.
READ ALSO >> Lagos State Government Set To Shut Down 18 Roads Due To President Buhari’s Arrival This Weekend <<
The prosecutor, Mrs C. Rotimi-Odutola, stated that the convict, Arogundade, committed the offences on April 10, 2010, at Gbara Junction, Aiyetoro, Ajegunle, Lagos.
The story was that the dead policeman was on a commercial motorcycle to visit his mother, Mrs Mojisola Martins, in her home on Olayinka Street, Ajegunle, when they were stopped and attacked by four men at Gbara Junction.
The prosecutor stated that the deceased was seriously injured and was taken to a hospital at Opaleye Junction in Ajegunle where he finally died.
According to the prosecutor, Oladipupo was murdered because he was known to have encouraged the use of commercial tricycles in Aiyetoro, meaning that the NURTW unit will be losing money.
