Just when Nigerians had thought justice on the gruesome and needless murder of the late Lagos Lawyer, Omobolanle Raheem, who was shot in the chest on December 25, 2022, at Ajah Roundabout, on Lekki- Expressway, Lagos State, had been jettisoned, today, due justice got served on her case.
The Lagos State High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square Annex, Igbosere, in Lagos, has convicted and sentenced a suspended Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Drambi Vandi, to death by hanging over the murder of Lagos-based lawyer, Mrs. Omobolanle Raheem.
Vandi was sentenced to death after he was found guilty of killing Raheem.
The Lagos State Government had, on January 16, arraigned Vandi before the court for shooting the 41-year-old pregnant lawyer to death at the Ajah underbridge checkpoint on December 25, 2022.
Since the court trial started in January, the deceased’s husband, sister, police armourer, and pathologist, among others, have testified against the defendant.
The prosecution also tendered 27 exhibits, but Vandi was the only witness who testified in his own defence.
In his testimony before the court, he claimed that the bullet presented in court which was said to have killed Mrs Raheem did not come from the rifle he carried on the day of the incident.
Justice Ibironke Harrison, however, held that the prosecution, the Lagos State Government,
had proven the case against the convict beyond all reasonable doubts.
According to the Justice, the court finds the defendant guilty on one count of murder. “You would be hanged by the neck till you are dead,” the judge declared.
Vandi’s heinous act was widely condemned by Nigerians. Two days after the incident, he was suspended from the Police Force.
The crime contravenes Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
Other prosecution witnesses brought to the court include two eyewitnesses and a pathologist.
The accused, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Drambi Vandi, who shockingly murdered the late Raheem in the presence of her husband and sister, was found guilty of one-count murder preferred against him for which he was sentenced to death by hanging.
