By Kayode Adeoti, Ilorin
A Detective from the Department of State Service (DSS), Femi Babalola, has narrated to the Kwara State High Court how the agency arrested all the eight defendants standing trial for alleged rape and murder of a Unilorin Student Olajide Blessing through the use of technology.
Babalola said the DSS operatives apprehended the defendants through tracking devices and intelligence gathering saying location of one of the defendant’s girlfriend was first obtained which later served as lead to those who bought phone and other items stolen from Blessing.
He told the court how the first prime suspect Abdulazeez Ismail contracted three others the following day of the incident to help him unlock Blessing’s phone, withdraw money from her account and sell other items stolen from the deceased.
Details of how they conspired to transfer money from the late Unilorin student’s account through an Opay app to Kuda Bank and how one of them masked his face to change Blessing’s ATM Card pin and withdraw money at a GTBank were also revealed.
According to the DSS operative, all the defendants were apprehended within Eleven days of the murder of Blessing Olajide and all confessed to various roles played in the rape, killing, selling and buying of items belonging to the deceased.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor’s attempt to tender and play the recorded video of the defendants’ confessional statements and field operation in the open court was objected to by the defense counsels on the ground that a portion of the video was recorded by a third party who is not a staff of the DSS.
Justice Adebayo Yusuf overruled their objections and admitted the video as exhibits to be played in the court while the matter was adjourned to next week Thursday and Friday for continuation of hearing.
It would be recall that a witness from Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB), Babatunji Lawal, tendered the CCTV footage of the ATM point showing only the eyes and cap of one of the defendants despite using his palm to cover the ATM camera while using the stolen card.
Lawal, during the proceedings, identified the 6th defendant, Abdullateef Abdulrahman, as the suspect who used the ATM to withdraw the deceased money.