A 26-year-old man, David Isaiah, who kidnapped and killed a commercial sex worker, Comfort James, with herbicide, was on Monday sentenced to death by hanging by an Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti Division.
Isaiah was charged with conspiracy, kidnapping and murder alongside his friend, Saviour Daniel, who died during the pendency of the court trial.
He was tried and convicted on three count bordering on conspiracy, kidnapping and murder.
While he was condemned to death for murder, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment for kidnapping and 21-year jail term for conspiracy.
The charge read, “The defendant and Saviour Daniel, who died during the pendency of the case on 6th of February, 2024 in Ado Ekiti, did conspire to kidnap and murder one Comfort James, a commercial sex worker.”
The prosecutor, Ibironke Odetola, had told the court that the offences committed by the defendant, who was arraigned on 18th April, 2024, “are contrary to sections 280, 279 (a) and 234 of the Criminal Law of Ekiti State, 2021”.
In his testimony before the court, the Director of Afrika Brothel, Irona, Ado Ekiti said, “I was called by other commercial sex workers in the brothel, that they had not seen the victims (sex workers) since the previous day.
“The missing sex worker was said to have called to inform her colleagues that she had been kidnapped and that the kidnappers were demanding N100,000 ransom.
“I reported the matter at the police station and the Civil Defence office. Their telephone lines were tracked and later arrested. They took Civil Defence Officers to where they killed and dumped the dead body of the sex worker.”
The prosecutor, Odetola, called six witnesses and tendered defendants’ statements, pictures of the deceased, a warrant to bury the corpse, a pair of slippers, SIM cards and herbicide as exhibits.
The defendant, who spoke in his own defence, told the court that “after having sex with the deceased, we used her number to call her colleagues that she had been kidnapped and demanded a ransom of N100,000.
“Her hands and neck were tied all along, but when the ransom was not forthcoming and on realising that she had seen our faces clearly, to avoid being implicated, we poured herbicide in her mouth and she later died, the defendant said as he called no witness.”
Delivering his judgment, Justice Olalekan Olatawura said the prosecution had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant conspired with his late friend (Saviour Daniel) to kidnap and murder Comfort James.
The judge said, “Consequent upon the foregoing, the defendant is found guilty as charged. Any sympathetic consideration in favour of the defendant cannot, therefore, be justified.
“Consequently, the defendant is sentenced to 21 years imprisonment for conspiracy, life imprisonment for kidnapping and for murder, the judgment of this court upon you is that, you be hanged by the neck until you be dead, may God have mercy on your soul.”