An Ondo State High Court in Akure has sentenced a lecturer at the College of Health Technology, Ijero-Ekiti, Shittu Isiaka, to death by hanging after finding him guilty of armed robbery.
The verdict was delivered by O. M. Adejumo, who ruled that the prosecution established the offences of conspiracy and armed robbery against the defendant.
The court, however, discharged and acquitted Isiaka on a separate charge of endangering life, citing insufficient evidence to support the allegation.
Isiaka had earlier been arraigned before the court in November 2018 on a three-count charge involving conspiracy, armed robbery and conduct likely to endanger life.
Prosecutors told the court that the incident occurred in July 2017 when the defendant and accomplices allegedly robbed a commercial driver, Olatunji Olowoyeye, of his Nissan Cabstar truck along the Akure–Ilesha Expressway.
While testifying, Olowoyeye said the men hired him in Ilesa to transport cocoa beans from Igbara-Oke but later asked him to divert into a bush near Ibuji.
He told the court that one of the passengers suddenly produced a gun, forced him out of the vehicle, tied him up and fled with the truck, his money and mobile phone.
In his ruling, Justice Adejumo said the evidence before the court clearly connected the defendant to the robbery, sentencing him to life imprisonment for conspiracy and death by hanging for the armed robbery offence.
