After a four-month trial, the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin, presided over by Justice Hannah Olushola Ajayi, 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.
The court found Bello guilty of the gruesome killing, which he earlier admitted was committed for ritual purposes.
Lawal, who reportedly met the convict on Facebook, was lured and murdered in a disturbing case that drew widespread attention.
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.
He 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 newbornbaby when AbdulRahman Bello called her to his residence somewhere around Offa garage area of Ilorin.
AbdulRahman Bello, during the trial, told the court that after having bouts of s*x with Hafsoh, he choked her by the neck, after which she passed on, and he then dismembered her body.
At another time, AbdulRahman Bello said Hafsoh Bello died of asthma after having rounds of s*x with her and that the fear of how to dispose of the lifeless body caused him to dismember her body.
