Deji Owolabi (30) and Opeyemi Oluwakomolafe (22) were found guilty of armed robbery and were sentenced to death by hanging by an Ado-Ekiti High Court on Monday, November 21, 2022.
The court also gave them each a seven-year prison term for plotting and escaping from the Ado-Ekiti prison’s legal custody.
The two broke out of the Ado-Ekiti Prison on December 1, 2014, according to earlier testimony by the prosecution before the court.
On July 14, 2015, they reportedly robbed a couple in Ilumoba, Ekiti, and raped the 35-year-old wife.
The prosecutor, Mr. Ilesanmi Adelusi, presented a Dane gun, ten phone handsets, a machete, and other incriminating evidence seized from the defendants, and also called five witnesses.
The convicts chose to represent themselves after rejecting five of the lawyers that had been assigned to them. They also brought two witnesses.
Honourable Justice Monisola Abodunde gave the following ruling: “In my view, the defendants are compulsive pathological liars who have become hardened criminals.
“Rather than mend their ways in prison, they escaped prison during a jailbreak and continued to unleash terror on the community until nemesis caught up with them.
“They are a threat to a peaceful existence in our society and they must be made to face the reality of the consequences of their wicked behaviour.
“I find the two defendants guilty as charged and they are sentenced to death by hanging. May the Lord have mercy on your souls.”