For killing human rights lawyer Fadipe, 27-year-old man sentenced to death by hanging

An Ikeja High Court on Friday sentenced to death by hanging a 27-year-old man, Oluwaseun Oladapo, charged with the murder of Mr Kunle Fadipe, a Lagos based human rights lawyer.
Fadipe was a member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and a member of the board of trustees of an advocacy group, Access to Justice.
Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye, in her judgement, found Oladapo guilty of a five-count charge of murder, armed robbery and assault occasioning harm.
The judge, while sentencing the convict,  said,  “The `allocutus’ of the defendant shall be passed unto the appropriate committee which is the Committee for the Prerogative of Mercy.
“Sections 221 and 229(2)(a) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011 provides mandatory death sentences for the offences of murder and armed robbery respectively.
“Section 171 provides three years; imprisonment for the offence of assault occasioning harm.
“On count one, you: Oluwaseun Oladapo, is to be hung by the neck till you’re dead.
“On count two, you: Oluwaseun Oladapo, is sentenced to three years imprisonment.
“On count three, you: Oluwaseun Oladapo, is to be hung by the neck till you’re dead.
“On count four, you: Oluwaseun Oladapo, is sentenced to three years in prison.
“On count five, you: Oluwaseun Oladapo ,is sentenced to three years imprisonment .
“The terms of imprisonment of counts two, four and five are that they should run consecutively.
“This is the judgment of the court.”
Oladapo, who was on crutches as a result of a gunshot injury on his left leg, wore a remorseless expression on his face after the sentences were pronounced.
He was immediately led out of the courtroom by prison officials to serve his sentence at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons.
Earlier, before the sentences were passed, Mr Worer Obuagbaka, counsel to the convict, pleaded for mercy on behalf of his client.
“The convict is asking for mercy, he is a first-time offender and has been in custody for a very long time.
“I ask this honourable court to give him a second chance.
He is a young man who is still useful to the society. I urged this honourable court to please temper justice with mercy,” Obuagbaka said.
The prosecuting counsel, Mrs O.A Olugasa in her response said,  “We, respectfully, submit that the offences for which the convict is charged carry mandatory sentences.
“The deceased was not given a second chance. His children were not given a second chance to have their father with them.
“I urge the court to give the harshest punishment to the convict so that justice can be seen to be done.”
Oladapo, allegedly murdered the lawyer at 3a.m., on July 4, 2014 at his No. 1, Harmony Estate, Ifako-Ijaiye, Iju, Lagos residence.
Oladapo was arraigned on July 5, 2015 and the prosecution closed its case against him on February 9, 2016 while the defence closed its case on May 31, 2016.
The prosecution was led by Mr Adeniji Kazeem, the Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice and Mrs Idowu Alakija, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPPs).
Blood stained torch, dagger, and T-shirt as well as a pair of slippers, and a window blind used to subdue Oladapo during the attack were presented as evidence by the prosecution.
Six witnesses testified for the prosecution–Fadipe’s wife, Mrs Kemi Fadipe (PW1); Fadipe’s sister-in-law, Miss Biola Owolabi (PW2); a female police officer, Insp. Temidayo Salad (PW3).
A pathologist, Dr. Sunday Soyemi (PW4); a security guard, Mr Bamidele Sanni (PW5) and a policeman, Inspector Adeloye James also testified.
Oladapo was also charged with the murder of Mrs Cecilia Owolabi, the mother-in-law of the late Fadipe, but the charge of murder was commuted to assault occasioning harm by the court.
Justice Ipaye explaining the reason why the murder charge of Owolabi was rejected said , “The prosecution did not prove a direct link between the actions of the defendant and the death of Madam Cecilia Owolabi.
“He is, however, found guilty of the assault occasioning harm of Madam Cecilia Owolabi.”
During the trial, the wife of the late lawyer, Mrs Kemi Fadipe, in her testimony gave a graphic narration of the events of the night of the murder.
Kemi, a school proprietress said: “My husband came in late from the office at 10p.m., and he was preparing for a flight to Abuja the following day, we both had retired to our bedroom.
“Our home is a five – bedroom duplex and there was no electricity that night, the home was well lit because the generator was on.
“At 11.45p.m.,, power was restored and my son Folahanmi went to put off the generator, a few minutes after he left, he came running upstairs screaming for help.
“He had a stab wound on his head and was being pursued by the defendant who was armed with a knife.
“The commotion alerted my husband and I. We rushed to the ante-room upstairs where we saw the defendant and Folahanmi.
“The defendant was saying that someone had to die today and demanded N500,000, threatening us that the members of his gang had surrounded the house.
“We knelt down to plead with him and my husband instructed me to get a white envelope containing cash from the jacket of his suit.
“When the envelope was handed over to the defendant, he was dissatisfied and demanded for laptops and phones and we told him those items were downstairs.
“He, for no reasons, lunged at Folahanmi with a knife and my husband stepped in to save him and he was stabbed in his neck and his chest.”
Kemi said after her husband was stabbed, Oladapo ran downstairs where he, unfortunately, encountered her mother.
“My mother came out from her bedroom downstairs to investigate the source of the commotion and the defendant ran into her, stabbing her in the chest.”
“I, the maid and my sister struggled with him in the living room downstairs, he was hit on the head with a stabiliser but he was behaving in a wild and crazy manner; very strong and hard to subdue.
“My husband and Folahanmi ran out to get help but my husband collapsed in the premises.
“ Folahanmi got help from the security guard of the estate who subdued the defendant by shooting him with a gun.”
She said that Fadipe was rushed to a hospital where he gave up the ghost at 4a.m..
“Her mother who had travelled to Lagos from Ibadan for an eye operation was discharged from the hospital but died in Ibadan from the shock and trauma of the incident two weeks later.
“My son, Folahanmi, a student in one of the tertiary institutions in the country, lost an academic session  due to the trauma of the head and chest injuries he sustained during the attack,” Kemi said.
Miss Biola Owolabi, the sister-in-law to the late lawyer in her testimony during the trial, attested to the strength of Oladapo.
“He scaled the fence of the house and lay in-wait at the generator house where he threatened and attacked Folahanmi, who had come to put off the generator.
“It was difficult to subdue him after the frenzied attack, he was like a man possessed, he had the strength of 10 men, everyone sustained injuries” she said.
A pathologist, Dr Sunday Soyemi in his testimony, revealed the cause of Fadipe’s death.
“There were bruises on his neck, head, lower back, a stab wound to the left ear, a penetrative stab wound to the neck, a penetrative-stab wound to his left back.
“He had some defensive wounds on his body, there was a laceration on the jugular vein and a stab wound to the heart.
“The cause of death was rapid and severe blood loss caused by the severe nice of the left jugular vein,” Soyemi said.
Mr Bamidele Sanni, a security guard at the Harmony Estate, had testified during the trial that he shot Oladapo on the leg to incapacitate him.
“When I got to the Fadipe’s home, the defendant was still difficult to subdue, I shot him in the leg to incapacitate him and I put a call to the police at the Iju Police Station.
Oladapo was admitted at the Police Hospital, Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos, for four months to treat the gunshot wounds.
However, Oladapo, while testifying in Yoruba language in his defence, denied committing the offence.
According to him, on the night of the murder, he left a viewing centre to go to his home and he had to take a shortcut via Harmony Estate.
“When I got to the Harmony Estate, an altercation occurred between me, the security guard and four men, they beat me up, subdued me and shot at my leg.
“I fainted and woke up in the hospital, I fainted again only to wake up four days later at the police station.”
However, when the state prosecutor showed him a picture where he was being subdued at the Fadipe’s residence, he strenuously denied being at the house.
“That picture was taken at the police station and not at the Fadipe’s  house.
“ I don’t know Mr Kunle Fadipe, I never hid in his generator house, I never went to the Fadipe’s home,” he said.
Justice Ipaye, however, in her judgement on Friday, dismissed Oladapo’s denials.
“There was no evidence that a fight took place on the road between the defendant, the security guard and four persons.
“The testimonies of PW1 to PW5 placed the defendant in the house.
“The court does not believe the account of the defendant; this was afterthought and a calculated attempt at deflecting the truth.
“The evidence of the witnesses are credible and without a shadow of doubt, the consequences of stabbing a grown-up man with a 10-inch-double-edged carved knife should be fatal.
“The evidence before this court is direct, convincing and overwhelming.
“It is impossible to claim self-defence when you are the perpetrator and forced yourself into the victims’ home,” the judge said.