By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The duo of Pastor Segun Philip, 42, and Owolabi Adeeko, 23, have been sentenced to death by hanging by an Osun State High Court, sitting in Ikire, for killing Favour Daley-Oladele, a final year student of Lagos State University for ritual purposes.
Justice Christiana Obadina while delivering judgement on the case in Ikire on Monday,17 July, 2023, also sentenced Bola Adeeko aged, 46 years, the mother of Owolabi, to two years jail term for eating human flesh.
Owolabi and Favour met in LASU and were dating before the man invited her over to Ikoyi, Osun State, in December 2019.
But while on the visit, Favour was lured to Philip’s church also in Ikoyi, where she was drugged and killed with a pestle.
After harvesting some organs from her, Favour’s remains were buried in a shallow grave within the church premises by both men.
The organs harvested from the deceased were reportedly used to prepare concoctions for Owolabi’s mother to improve her business fortune which was nose diving at the time.
The three defendants, after they were arrested, were first arranged before a Magistrate Court in Apomu, in January 2020, but were later re-arraigned before High Court, Ikire in November 2021, on charges of conspiracy and murder contrary to Section 324 and 319(1) of the Criminal Code Cap. 34 Laws of Osun State, 2002.
During the trial, the prosecution team, led by the Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Osun State Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Adekemi Bello, who appeared with Ajibola Alade, told the court that the defendants committed the offence on 8 December, 2019.
Bello also told the court that the Ogun State Police Command arrested Philip alongside Owolabi, adding that under interrogation, Owolabi confessed to the police that he used his girlfriend to prepare meals for a money ritual for his mother.
The prosecution team in the course of the trial, called the police investigating officer that worked on the case and eight other witnesses and tendered several exhibits before the court.
The defendants did not call any witnesses but entered the witness box to testify in defense of their different roles in the matter.
Counsel to the defendants, Adeshina Olaniyan, had pleaded for leniency while addressing the court.
Delivering her judgement, Justice Obadina declared that the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt and pronounced Philip and Owolabi guilty of conspiracy and murder.
She sentenced them to death by hanging for murder and 14 years imprisonment for conspiracy, while Owolabi’s mother, Bola, found guilty of consumption of human flesh, was sentenced to two years imprisonment.
