Title: Court Sentences Ekiti Health Tech Lecturer to Death for Armed Robbery Date Published: 14 March 2026 Description: The Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure has sentenced a lecturer at the College of Health Technology, Ijero‑Ekiti, Shittu Isiaka, to death by hanging after finding him guilty of armed robbery.The trial judge, Omolara Adejumo, delivered the judgment after holding that the prosecution successfully proved charges of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and armed robbery against the defendant.Isiaka was initially arraigned before the court on November 26, 2018 on a three-count charge bordering on conspiracy, armed robbery and endangering life.However, the court discharged and acquitted him on the third count of endangering life after ruling that the prosecution failed to establish the allegation beyond reasonable doubt.Prosecuting counsel John Dada Joshua told the court that the robbery occurred on July 5, 2017 along the Ibuji axis of the Akure–Ilesha Expressway.According to him, Isiaka and accomplices who are still at large robbed a commercial driver, Olatunji Olowoyeye, of his Nissan Cabstar truck at gunpoint.While testifying before the court, the victim said he had known the defendant prior to the incident and that Isiaka, alongside two other men, hired him in Ilesa to transport cocoa beans from Igbara-Oke for a fee of N20,000.Olowoyeye said the men initially paid him N8,000 and promised to settle the remaining balance after the trip.He told the court that suspicion arose when the passengers instructed him to reverse the vehicle into a bush path near a primary school at Ibuji.According to him, one of the men sitting beside him suddenly produced a gun while the defendant sat in the front seat close to him.The victim said the men dragged him out of the truck, seized the vehicle keys, his mobile phone and cash, tied his hands and legs and abandoned him inside the bush.He further alleged that the defendant injected him with an unknown substance before tying him to a tree.Olowoyeye said he later managed to roll through the bush until he reached the roadside, where he was discovered by police patrol officers who took him to a hospital for treatment.He told the court that he passed blood in his urine for several days and spent about 15 days receiving medical care.During the trial, a prosecution witness, Kehinde Omotosho, testified that highway patrol officers brought the victim in a distressed state to the Igbara-Oke Police Station where he reported the robbery and implicated the defendant.However, Isiaka denied involvement in the crime, insisting he had no role in the robbery.He also rejected the allegation that he injected the victim with any substance, arguing that he was not a medical practitioner and had no licence to administer injections.The defendant further told the court that investigators failed to present any syringe or medical evidence to support the allegation.In her ruling, Justice Adejumo held that the prosecution failed to prove the charge of endangering life as required under Section 135(1) of the Evidence Act.The judge noted that no eyewitness account supported the claim that the victim was injected and that no medical report was tendered in court to confirm the alleged hospital treatment.She therefore ruled that it would be unsafe to rely solely on the testimonies presented without corroborating medical evidence and discharged the defendant on that count.However, the court found that the prosecution established sufficient evidence linking Isiaka to the armed robbery.Justice Adejumo consequently convicted him of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and armed robbery.He was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy and death by hanging for armed robbery.“The sentence of the court upon you is that you be hanged by the neck until you are dead,” the judge declared. Attached Images: a36ba1aa884b0634a20c583d30059afd45662371a7361e8cbed5fd0507ace67a.jpg Attached Video: None