An Ondo State High Court in Akure has sentenced Shittu Isiaka, a lecturer at the College of Health Technology in Ijero-Ekiti, to death by hanging for armed robbery and conspiracy.
Justice O.M. Adejumo convicted him on two counts after a trial that began with his arraignment on November 26, 2018. The court acquitted him on a third count of endangering life, as prosecutors failed to prove it beyond reasonable doubt.
Prosecutors said Isiaka and accomplices—at large—robbed commercial driver Olatunji Olowoyeye of his Nissan Cabstar (registration XJ 214 KTU) at gunpoint on July 5, 2017, around 11 a.m. along the Ibuji area of the Akure-Ilesha Expressway.
Olowoyeye testified he knew Isiaka, who hired him with two others in Ilesa to transport cocoa beans from Igbara-Oke for N20,000, paying N8,000 upfront. They directed him to reverse into a bush near a primary school at Ibuji, where one passenger pulled a gun. Isiaka sat beside him in the front.
The robbers dragged Olowoyeye out, took his keys, phone, and money, tied him up, and—per the victim—Isiaka injected him with a substance before securing him to a tree. Olowoyeye rolled to the main road, where police rescued him naked and hospitalized him. He passed bloody urine for days and stayed 15 days.
Inspector Kehinde Omotosho confirmed Olowoyeye arrived at Igbara-Oke Police Station via highway patrol and implicated Isiaka.
Isiaka denied involvement, the injection (claiming he wasn’t a medical practitioner without syringe access), and noted no syringe, medical report, or poison evidence was presented.
