The Court of Appeal sitting in Ilorin has upheld the death sentence imposed on Abdulrahman Bello for the murder of Hafsoh Yetunde Lawal, a student of the Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin.
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In a judgment delivered by a three-member panel led by Justice Gabriel Omoniyi Kolawole, the appellate court dismissed Bello’s appeal and affirmed the decision of the lower court, which had convicted him for murder and unlawful possession of human parts.
The court held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and that the trial court properly evaluated the evidence placed before it before arriving at its decision.
According to the appellate court, there was no basis to interfere with the conviction or the sentence imposed by the trial court.
“The appeal lacks merit,” the court held, affirming Bello’s conviction and the sentence of death by hanging.
Bello was convicted over the gruesome killing of Hafsoh Yetunde Lawal, who was reportedly his girlfriend. Prosecutors alleged that he murdered the student, dismembered her body and kept parts of her remains for suspected ritual purposes.
The prosecution team was led by the Attorney-General of Kwara State, Ibrahim Sulyman, alongside Chief State Counsel, Issa Zakari, and Assistant Chief State Counsel, B. L. Abdulsalam, of the Kwara State Ministry of Justice.
The case followed Hafsoh’s disappearance in February 2025. She was said to have been attending a naming ceremony on February 10, 2025, when she received a phone call, left her food to answer it and did not return.
Her family and friends searched for her without success before reporting the matter to the police at Oja Oba Police Station in Ilorin.
Investigators later traced her last phone call to Bello, who lived around the Offa Garage area of Ilorin.
Although Bello reportedly denied involvement in her disappearance, a search of his residence allegedly led to the discovery of Hafsoh’s dismembered body in a bowl, along with tools suspected to have been used in the act.
Bello had reportedly claimed that Hafsoh died from an asthma attack after visiting his residence, but investigators said the evidence found at the scene contradicted his account.
With the appellate court’s decision, Bello’s conviction and death sentence for the murder of the Kwara college student remain in force.
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