Unilorin rape-murder: Rape Saga: Student’s cousin breaks down testifying in court

A witness, Opeyemi Stowe, on Tuesday broke down in tears while testifying in court of how her sister, a 300 hundred level University of Ilorin student, Blessing Olajide Omowumi, was allegedly raped and murdered.

Stowe who claimed she is the deceased’s first cousin, was led in evidence by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Salman Jawondo at the Kwara State High Court, presided over by Justice Yusuf Adebayo.

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The witness, through the Attorney General, sought to tender before the court, eleven printed photographs of the deceased’s body taken shortly after she was mercilessly raped and murdered.

Counsel to the defendants, kicked against the admissibility of those photographs, submitting that it doesn’t satisfy the provision of the evidence act.

But Justice Adebayo, overruled the defendant counsel, maintaining that the admissibility of such document is determined by it relevancy to the case at hand.

He admitted the eleven copies of the photographs in evidence and it was marked exhibit PW4 while the matter was adjourned to July 19  for continuation of hearing.

All the eight suspects were brought to court under heavy security by the DSS.

Mrs Stowe has narrated thus, “The deceased was living with Dr Shittu and the latter curiosity on the said day, when the late Wumi’s phone number was not reachable made the family member to launch a search team for her whereabouts.

“Then two of Dr Shittu’s kids and I later went to their house. When we got there we tried to open the sitting room, it seemed to have been locked from inside. Then we went back to our mother’s house which is on the same street. From there Dr Shittu with her kids and I came back with a carpenter who broke the door open.

“We saw the lifeless body of Wumi on the floor with her face up and her two legs widely opened. Her neck was tied with a towel soaked in blood. Her pant was also by her side. A wrapper was also tied around her neck. We also found a knife on one of the chairs in the sitting room. There was equally a blood-stained pillow beside her body.

‘“A sheet of paper with an inscription of ‘no forgiveness from University of Ilorin’ was placed on her stomach too, while her school Identity card was also beside her.

“Her two hands were tied behind her back. Thereafter, we all rushed out of the sitting room. Then Dr Shittu went to report the incident at the police station in the same Tanke.

“The police officers came with a photographer who took pictures of Wumi. I also took pictures of her with my Samsung Galaxy S9 plus. I equally made some recordings with the phone.

“After all this, the police told Dr Shittu to call for an ambulance which came later with a mortuary attendance and her corpse was taken to Ilorin General Hospital. Medical doctors at the hospital examined her corpse and confirmed her death”.

The witness added that she printed the pictures she took by her phone as well as letter of compliance and handed over same to the Department of State Service.