An Ekiti State High Court has sentenced two men to death by hanging after convicting them for the abduction of a staff member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Gatekeepers News reports that the convicts, Ibrahim Abubakar and Abdullahi Abubakar, were found guilty by High Court I sitting in Fajuyi, Ado-Ekiti, in suit number HAD/124C/2022.
A third defendant, Usman Abubakar, was discharged and acquitted after the court ruled that the prosecution failed to establish his involvement in the crime.
The case arose from the kidnapping of Omoboade Adesina, an NYSC staff member, who was abducted in Ekiti State on April 22, 2022.
Following investigations, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested the suspects and prosecuted the matter before the court.
Delivering judgment, the Chief Judge of Ekiti State, Justice Lekan Ogunmoye, found Ibrahim Abubakar and Abdullahi Abubakar guilty and sentenced them to death by hanging.
Justice Ogunmoye, however, discharged and acquitted the third defendant, citing insufficient evidence linking him to the offence.
The judge commended the DSS prosecution team for diligently presenting evidence that proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.
He specifically highlighted the identification parade conducted by the DSS and the analysis of Call Data Records (CDR) as critical pieces of evidence that strengthened the prosecution’s case and led to the conviction.
The ruling represents another significant legal victory for the DSS in its campaign against kidnapping and other violent crimes.
The conviction comes shortly after a Sokoto State High Court sentenced three men to death over terrorism and cross-border arms trafficking offences, as well as other recent successful prosecutions involving kidnapping and organised crime suspects in different parts of the country.
Security experts have attributed the growing number of convictions to improved intelligence gathering and the use of technology-driven investigations in criminal prosecutions.
The DSS reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring that individuals involved in kidnapping, terrorism and related crimes are prosecuted and made to face the full weight of the law.
