A Lagos State High Court, on Monday, October 9, 2023, sentenced a police officer, Drambi Vandi, who was accused of fatally shooting Lagos-based lawyer, Bolanle Raheem on Christmas Day in 2022 at the Ajah roundabout in Lagos, to death by hanging.
The judge, Ibironke Harrison, found Vandi guilty of murder and delivered the sentence on Monday.
Vandi, a police officer attached to the Ajiwe police division in the Ajah area of Lagos, was suspended two days after the incident. The state government charged him with one count of murder in connection with the lawyer’s death and subsequently brought him to trial.
Throughout the trial, which began in January, several witnesses testified against the defendant, including the deceased’s husband, sister, police armourer, pathologist, and seven others. The prosecution presented 27 exhibits as evidence.
During his own testimony in his defense, Vandi told the court that the bullet presented as evidence, which was said to have killed the deceased, did not come from the rifle he carried on the day of the incident. He also claimed that he had never seen the bullet until it was presented in court.
Despite Vandi’s claims, the court found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to death by hanging for the killing of Bolanle Raheem, an expectant mother, at the Ajah roundabout in Lagos on Christmas Day in 2022.