Nigerian prince convicted of murder and sentenced to death

A Nigerian Prince, Adewale Oyekan of Lagos, was sentenced to death on Monday for the murder of businesswoman Sikirat Ekun. 

Prince Adewale is the son of the late traditional ruler of Lagos Adeyinka Oyekan and had been employed as a restaurant manager by the deceased. He and his accomplice Lateef Balogun, a former domestic servant to Ms Ekun, had both been charged for the murder of their employer. 

Ms Ekun was strangled to death and her body dumped in a well at her home in Lagos on 17th October 2012. When relatives began to look for her, Prince Adewale texted them using her phone to say that she had traveled to Abuja.  

On Monday, Justice Raliatu Adebiyi of Lagos’ Ikeja high court said in her judgment that the prosecution had proved the charges of conspiracy to commit murder and murder beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution told the court that Prince Adewale had hired Balogun to strangle Ms Ekun and then taken over her business and property. 

The prosecution continued that “After an extensive search, her body was found two months later, in December 2012, by well diggers and firefighters. The convicts had placed a generator, a gas cylinder, and other household items on the body to conceal it in the 1,000 feet well,”.

Prince Adewale and Lateef Balogun were both sentenced to death in accordance with sections 221 and 231 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011. 

Photo credit: The Punch