By EIGHT YEARS AFTER MURDER CASE, COURT SENTENCE NURTW BOSS TO DEATH BY HANGING
The case started eight years ago and one must have thought that all was swept under carpet until Yesterday Tuesday February 5th 2019 when Justice Olabisi Akinlade of Ikeja High Court ordered the courtroom locked and the keys kept in her possession before sentencing to death a chieftain of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) for the murder of a 32-year-old policeman, Gbenga Oladipupo.
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The convict, Saheed Arogundade, is the chairman of Boundary/Aiyetoro Unit of NURTW in Lagos.
The judge, on Tuesday, cited security reasons and the need to avoid disruption of proceedings for her decision.
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She however discharged and acquitted Arogundade’s five co-defendants – Mustapha Layeni, Adebayo Abdullahi, Seyi Pabiekun, Sikiru Rufai and Yusuf Arogundade – of a two-count charge of conspiracy to commit murder and murder.
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In a three-hour judgment, Justice Akinlade held that the prosecution was able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Arogundade murdered the policeman.
“The prosecution 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,” Justice Akinlade ruled.
On hearing the sentence, Arogundade collapsed in the dock while his relatives wailed in the courtroom gallery.
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According to the prosecution led by Mrs C. Rotimi-Odutola, the convict committed the offences on April 10, 2010, at Gbara Junction, Aiyetoro, Ajegunle, Lagos.
She narrated thus:
“The deceased was on a commercial motorcycle to visit his mother, Mrs Mojisola Martins, in her home on Olayinka Street, Ajegunle, when they were ambushed and attacked by four men at Gbara Junction.”
“Oladipupo was held down by three men and the convict stabbed him multiple times before fleeing with his accomplices.”
“The deceased who was gravely injured, was taken to a hospital at Opaleye Junction in Ajegunle where he passed away,” the prosecutor said.”
According information gathered from Mrs C. Rotimi-Odutola , Oladipupo was murdered because he purportedly encouraged the use of commercial tricycles in Aiyetoro, causing loss of income for the NURTW unit.
