Justice Serifat Sonaike of the Lagos State High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) in Lagos will on May 2, 2025, deliver judgement in the trial of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) driver, Andrew Ominnikoron, accused of killing one of his passengers, Oluwabamise Ayanwole.
The judge fixed the date after the prosecution led by the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Babajide Martins, and the defence counsel, Abayomi Omotubora, adopted their final written addresses.
The state government had arraigned Omininikoron before the court on a four-count charge of conspiracy, murder and two counts of rape.
The prosecution had informed the court that the defendant, on November 25, 2021, allegedly raped a 29-year-old lady Nneka Maryjane Ozezulu in Lagos.
The DPP also claimed that Ominnikoron conspired with others, now at large, and forcefully had sexual intercourse with his then 22-year-old passenger, Oluwabamise Ayanwole, a fashion designer, without her consent and murdered her.
He maintained that the offences are contrary to and punishable under Sections 411, 223, 260 and 165 of the criminal law of Lagos State 2015.
The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
In his final written address, defense counsel Omotubora argued that the prosecution failed to present material evidence demonstrating the defendant’s guilt.
He pointed out that the testimonies from prosecution witnesses did not specifically implicate Andrew-Nice in the act that led to the death of the victim.
Omotubora further submitted that a voice note supposedly sent by Bamise to her friend did not clarify the cause of her death, and he argued that it constituted hearsay since the prosecution did not call the friend who received the voice note as a witness.
But, in his counter affidavit, Martins clarified that the issue of corroboration concerning the alleged rape victim raised by the defence is not applicable in rape cases but relates to defilement.
He noted that the defendant was the last person seen with the deceased before her death, and instead of reporting the incident to the nearest police station or his office to prove his innocence, he fled to Osoosa, Sagamu, Ogun State, where he was apprehended by officials of the Department of State Security Services (DSS) in 2022.
Citing Section 34 of the Nigerian Evidence Act, which instructs the court to carefully evaluate the credibility of statements before relying on them completely, Martins urged the court to assign probative value to the voice note left by the deceased.
