The Kwara State High Court in Ilorin has sentenced Abdulrahman Bello to death by hanging for the murder of 24-year-old Hafsoh Yetunde Lawal, a final-year student of the Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin.
Presided over by Justice Hannah Olushola Ajayi, the court delivered the ruling to end the four-month trial on Thursday.
The court found Bello guilty of the killing, which he earlier admitted was committed for ritual purposes.
Both reportedly met on Facebook, before Bello lured and murdered Lawal his victim.
Meanwhile, four other defendants — Ahmed Abdulwasiu (41), Suleiman Muyideen (28), Jamiu Uthman (29), and Abdulrahmon Jamiu (31) — were discharged and acquitted due to lack of evidence linking them to the crime.
Bello also claimed to be an Islamic cleric and that he carried out the act all alone.
Bello, who said he killed Lawal because he needed human hands for money rituals, regretted that if only he had known another way to source the needed ingredient, he wouldn’t have killed her.
On February 13, 2025, Hafsoh Lawal was said to be attending a naming ceremony of her friend’s baby when AbdulRahman Bello called her to his residence somewhere around Offa garage area of Ilorin.
He had told the court that after sex with Hafsoh, he choked her by the neck, after which she passed on, and he then dismembered her body.
However, he would later claim that Hafsoh died of asthma after several they had rounds of sex; and that the fear of how to dispose of the corpse caused him to dismember her body.
