Justice: Lagos BRT driver sentenced to death by hanging for killing fashion designer Bamise

*Justice Serifat Sonaike of the Lagos High Court convicts and sentences Andrew Ominikoron, a Lagos State Bus Rapid Transit driver, to death by hanging for the murder of Miss Bamise Ayanwola, a 22-year-old fashion designer

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

For the murder of Miss Bamise Ayanwola, a 22-year-old fashion designer, the Lagos High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square, in Lagos State, has convicted and sentenced Andrew Ominikoron, a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) driver, to death by hanging.

Justice Serifat Sonaike, in a judgment that lasted over two-and-a-half hours,  held that the Lagos State Government (LASG) as the

prosecution, successfully proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the offence in the state.

The Judge ruled, “that for the death of Oluwabamise Ayanwola, you will be hanged by the neck until you are dead. May God have mercy upon you.”

Earlier, the prosecution, led by Dr. Babajide Martins, Director of Public Prosecution, in Lagos, had asked the court to apply the maximum sentence while the defence counsel, Abayomi Omotubora, pleaded in his allocutus that the Judge should temper justice with mercy.

The court also noted although there was no eye-witness account of the incident, it relied on a series of circumstantial evidence, the evidence of the pathologist, and dying declaration of the victim all of which the judge held pointed solely to the defendant as the last person to see her before her death February 26, 2022.

The court, however, convicted the defendant for the rape of a 29-year-old lady, Nneka Maryjane Ozezulu, November 25, 2021.

Justice Sonaike further stated that the defendant had a history of raping female passengers in his BRT bus as submitted by the extrajudicial statements of two victims of his crime – the testimony of Ozezulu, and the terrifying voice note sent out by Bamise just before she died.

The court said the voice note indicated that Bamise did not consent to sexual intercourse with the defendant.

In regard to allegation of tape in the lawsuit, the court ruled that medical reports, however, neither showed that late Bamise was penetrated nor was any semen found in her.

This, the court ruled, meant that the action of rape was not concluded, or that it failed.

The Judge, therefore, discharged the defendant on the offence of rape of the late Bamise, but found him guilty for the lesser offence of attempted rape which was successfully proved by the prosecution.

The court also discharged the defendant on the offence of conspiracy insisting that the prosecution had not proved the same.

Kindly Share This Story