*Third defendant discharged as Chief Judge commends DSS prosecutors

Two men arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) have been sentenced to death by an Ekiti State High Court, following their conviction for kidnapping a staff of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

While the kidnappers, Ibrahim Abubakar and Abdullahi Abubakar, were convicted and sentence of to death, the third defendant, Usman Abubakar, was discharged after the Court found insufficient evidence linking him to the crime.

The case bordered on the 22nd April 2022 abduction of Omoboade Adesina, a female staff member of the NYSC in the state. Both convicts were subsequently arrested and prosecuted by the DSS.

Delivering judgment, the Chief Judge of Ekiti State, Lekan Ogunmoye, sentenced both defendants to death by hanging, but discharged the third.

The Chief Judge commended the diligence of DSS prosecutors in proving the case beyond reasonable doubt. He specifically highlighted the identification parade conducted by the Service and the analysis of call data records during investigation as pivotal to the conviction.

The conviction marks yet another major courtroom victory for the DSS. This comies on the heels of a death sentence handed down by a Sokoto High Court against three men convicted of terrorism and cross-border arms proliferation, as well as the conviction a kidnapper in Kogi State earlier secured by the Service among others.

The string of successful prosecutions further underscores the effectiveness of the DSS’s intelligence-driven approach to investigating and prosecuting violent crimes.

This also reaffirms the commitment of the Service in ensuring that perpetrators of kidnapping, terrorism, and related offences do not escape the full weight of the law.