Two commercial motorcyclists, Abdullahi Oloruntoyin, 31, and Kazeem Ayodele, 26, have been remanded in prison for their alleged involvement in the death of an admission seeker, Ebunoluwa Osatuyi, in Akure, Ondo State.
Osatuyi was killed with a pestle at her father’s house at Okuta Elerinla, Akure, in January 2022.
The defendants were arrested by the police after the deceased’s phone was tracked to them and arraigned on two counts of conspiracy and murder.
The phone was said to have got missing after she was murdered.
The police prosecutor, Ajiboye Obadasa, told the Magistrate’s Court sitting at Oke-Eda that the men killed the deceased by hitting a pestle on her head around 5.40pm on Otiko Street, Okuta Elerinla, Akure, on January 24, 2022.
According to him, the duo committed an offence contrary to Section 316 and punishable under Section 9 of the Criminal Code, Cap. 37, Vol. 1 Laws of Ondo State of Nigeria, 2006.
The defendants, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, claimed that they found the deceased’s missing phone on the ground at another location.
Oloruntoyin told the court that he saw the phone on the ground, adding that he picked it up for personal use because it was new.
The defendant claimed that he later gave it to the second defendant.
He said, “I was in my house resting when policemen came with my brother that I was involved in the killing of a lady with a pestle, which sounded strange to me. I was later told that the phone I gave my brother to use to make a call was stolen from a crime scene at Okuta Elerinla, which also seemed strange to me.”
The prosecutor made an oral application to the court to remand the defendants in prison due to the gravity of the offence.
Counsel for the defendants, Okolike Nnagozie, did not oppose the application.
The magistrate, Damilola Sekoni, ordered the remand of the defendants in the Owo Custodial Centre and adjourned the case till March 28, 2022, for further hearing.
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