Ekiti Court Jails Two Men 25 Years Each for Kidnapping NYSC Staff After Fatal Farm Attack
An Ekiti State High Court has sentenced two men to 25 years imprisonment each for the kidnapping of a female staff member of the National Youth Service Corps, in a case that arose from a violent farm attack that also claimed the life of her husband.
Justice Lekan Ogunmoye delivered the judgment against Ibrahim Abubakar, 44, and Abdullahi Abubakar, 41, after the Department of State Services arrested and prosecuted them over the abduction of Omoboade Adesina on April 22, 2022, in Ado Ekiti.
The case had its origins in a brutal attack on March 9, 2022, along Federal Polytechnic Road in Ado Ekiti, where armed men invaded the farm of Taiwo Adesina, Omoboade’s husband. He was shot in the head while trying to escape and was rushed to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Weeks later, the same gang abducted Omoboade, who testified before the court that she was a serving NYSC staff member in the state at the time.
The defendants were originally arraigned alongside two others Usman Abubakar, 49, and Abdulazeez Alebiosu, 59 on a three-count charge of conspiracy, murder and kidnapping. Alebiosu died during the course of the trial. In delivering his judgment, Justice Ogunmoye discharged and acquitted Usman Abubakar, noting that the victim did not implicate him in her testimony and that the prosecution failed to sufficiently link him to the crime.
On the murder and conspiracy charges, the judge held that the prosecution had not proved its case beyond reasonable doubt against the remaining defendants and discharged them on those counts. However, the court found that the kidnapping charge against Ibrahim Abubakar and Abdullahi Abubakar had been established, and sentenced both men to 25 years imprisonment each.
The conviction adds to a growing list of successful prosecutions driven by the DSS, coming in the wake of other recent death sentences handed down in Kogi and Katsina states, as well as a Federal High Court verdict in Abuja against four men involved in the 2022 terrorist attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State.
