Bus Rapid Transit driver Andrew Ominikoron has been sentenced to death for the rape and murder of 22-year-old designer Oluwabamise Ayanwola.
Mr. Ominikoron has been facing trial on a five-count charge, including conspiracy, rape, murder, and sexual assault, for the crime that shocked the nation on February 26, 2022, though he pleaded not guilty and denied raping or killing the young lady, A Lagos High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square Lagos Island found him guilty.
Presiding judge Justice Sherifat Sonaike ruled that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt Ominikoron committed the crime and handed down the sentence.
“For the death of Oluwabamise Ayanwola, you will be hanged by the neck until you are dead. May God have mercy upon you,” said the judge.
Ominikoron was also found guilty of sexual assault on Dr. Anosike Victoria and the rape of one Maryland Ojiezelu. Both ladies had come forward to testify, they had been victims on the same bus ride.
Miss Ayanwola had boarded the BRT bus after close of work near the Lekki-Ajah Conservation Centre, Lekki-Ajah Expressway at about 7.pm. She never got home. Ominikoron was alleged to have made a detour and stopped in an isolated area to unleash terror on the helpless lady.
Her body was discovered nine days later on Carter Bridge, Lagos Island.
During the trial Ominikoron claimed that it was one of the three male passengers he picked along the way that committed the crime. But eyewitness said the lady was thrown out of the moving bus, she died before she could get medical aid.
While riding in the bus Ayanwola sensing she was in danger, was smart enough to have record with her phone the interior of the BRT and the bus number which she sent to her friend.
It was with this evidence police traced the driver who was promptly arrested.
