In continuation of his trial in the alleged murder case of Hafsoh Lawal, a 24-year-old final year student of Kwara state College, Ilorin, Abdulrahman Bello, the Principal Suspect along with his accomplices appeared before Justice Hannah Olushola Ajayi on Wednesday.
Recall that the matter was adjourned to today after taking no fewer than 10 witnesses in the four sittings ,ROYAL NEWS reports.
At the commencement of Wednesday’s hearing, a witness from the Department of State Security Service, Ayodeji Joshua, told the court that on 10th March 2025, the Kwara State Ministry of Justice contacted the service through a letter for further investigation into the alleged murder of Yetunde Lawal by one Abdulrahman Bello.
He furthers that, “Consequently, DPP secured a court order for the release of Abdulrahman Bello to our office for further investigation. In the cause of our investigation, based on the request of the Ministry of Justice, we were requested to investigate his financial records, social media account and his call log.
“While doing that, we requested for his calls register history from the service provider, MTN, where he has two lines, we obtained a court order to obtain his account from OPAY digital service and Know Your Customer, (KYC) as well as his social media account i.e Facebook with the name ABDULRAHMAN BALLO. ”
Joshua continues; “In the cause of our analysis, we dicovered that suspect called the victim for the first time of March 9th 2025, prior to this time, they have never spoken before and later on the 10th February 2025, they both exchanged conversation about four times between 1pm and 4.30pm.
“On the 11th March 2025, the defendant also made calls to five different persons which include one “Alfa Alagbo” by name Abdulsalam Mohammed and one Iya Asiata and one Hasfat Saliu and Mudashir Musa.
“In the cause of our findings, we discovered that he made the calls to the aforementioned person to source for some herbal materials such as aligator pepper, Epo òbo, Egbo Tube, ewe ajo ale and ewe aje among others.
Investigating further, Joshua told the court that, “They told us that these materials are part of concortions used by fetish people for rituals. The first defendant called Musa Mudashir to request for a sizable amount of Indian Hemp. He employed Musa Mudashiru for that pirpose because of his proximity to the people that are selling Indian Hemp.
“The last person thay the first defendant called was Jimoh Mahmud, butcher who worked in the abbattoir. We discovered that he called him to request for Cow Brain which he declined his request due to low patronage in the abbattoir. Haven established all these fact, on 8th April 2025, we requested him to write a statement.
In the absence of any family member and lawyer to witness his statement writing, we suggested contacting the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights. We called Dr. Adebowale who witnessed the process.
The statement writing process which was recorded by the DSS in a COMPACT DISK was however admitted by the court as exihibit. In the video evidence played in the court room, Abdulrahman confessed to the DSS that he strangled Hafsoh Lawal to death during sex and during the night, I bought alchocolic drink which I drank before commencing the dismembering operation of her parts.
“When I finished pieceing her body part, I took the head and intestine out to dispose them.”
In the video, Abdulrahman Bello narrated how he was tracked, arrested and detained and further revealed entered in ritual activities.
The court went on recess at exactly 11.25am.
Details later….
