Three varsity students get 14 years jail for manslaughter
From Iyabo Sotunde,
Ibadan
HAVING been found guilty of beating an alleged rapist and cultist who subsequently died in hospital from injuries sustained, three students of the University of Ibadan (UI) have been sentenced to 14 years imprisonment.
The convicted students are Clement Onoja, a 22-year-old 500 level Agricultural Economics student; Ahmed Folami (24), 200 level Statistics and Aigbogun Osagie (22), 500 level student of Agriculture.
However, two others, Miss Aigbogun Ikpemosa, a 20-year-old 300 level Veterinary Medicine student and Nathaniel Akpheokhai, a 33-year-old post-graduate student were discharged and acquitted by the trial judge, Justice John Ige.
The accused persons, standing trial on a two-count charge of conspiracy and murder of Godfrey Adoroh, according to the prosecution, committed the offence at Agbowo area of Ibadan on November 18, 2002.
The accused persons were alleged to have beaten Adoroh for raping Miss Aigbogun (also charged) and robbing her of the sum of N4,600 and 50 Euro.
The beating, it was learnt, resulted in the hospitalisation of the deceased at the Group Medical Hospital in Ibadan, where he subsequently died.
The prosecution, represented by Mr. Bayo Adegbite, a legal officer in the state Ministry of Justice had called four witnesses to establish that Clement Onoja, alongside other accused persons beat Adoroh as a form of punishment for raping Miss Aigbogun who had reported the alleged assault on her to her elder brother, Osagie.
But the accused persons, who pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge, insisted that they were not part of the people who beat Godfrey, though they said they were at Agbowo where the alleged rapist was being questioned on the act.
Aside their testimonies of the planned meeting at Agbowo, which subsequently attracted a crowd that allegedly beat up Godfrey, the accused also alleged that they were tortured by the police into making implicating statements.
While describing the deceased as a cultist known for notorious activities, the accused persons claimed that the crowd had descended on Godfrey in anger.
Corroborating their claims, the Dean of Students Affairs in the University, Prof. Ayoade Ogunkunle, in his evidence told the court that Godfrey was an unsettled student who was initially rusticated for four semesters and eventually expelled for misconduct, possession of ammunition and murder of a student on campus.
Delivering his judgment, Justice Ige held that the statements made by Clement, Ahmed and Osagie who are the first to third accused persons, in which they confirmed their presence at the scene and participation in the beating amounted to confession, saying the subsequent denial and claim of being tortured was an afterthought.
The trial judge maintained that their confessional statements put them on the scene and held them guilty for conspiracy.
He, however, noted that the prosecution failed to establish that the action of the accused persons was intentional, hence he converted the murder charge to manslaughter.
Justice Ige then ordered that the first three accused persons be sentenced to seven years imprisonment for each of the two charges directing that the sentences should run concurrently.
For Miss Aigbogun, who was allegedly raped, Justice Ige described her as a victim of circumstance who was used by the other accused to settle their scores.
While also discharging Akpheokhai who is the fifth accused person in the murder trial, Justice Ige said there was no evidence linking him to the scene of the incident or that he ordered the other co-accused to beat the deceased.
