Kwara: Butchered body of murdered female student, Yetunde Lawal presented in court

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When police witnesses displayed the dismembered body parts of the deceased in a Kwara High Court in Ilorin on Wednesday, a sizable crowd that had watched the start of the trial of the five suspects in connection with the alleged murder of Yetunde Lawal, a final-year female student at the College of Education Ilorin, broke down in tears.

When police witnesses introduced human parts as evidence during the trial of AbdulRahman Bello, the Facebook killer-lover, before trial judge Justice Hannah Ajayi, the court was filled with offensive odors.

The deceased’s father, Ibrahim Lawal, was unable to contain his emotions and sobbed hysterically when asked to identify pieces of her daughter’s hands that the police had brought as exhibits.

According to the ZINGTIE, the main suspect in the murder case, AbdulRahman Bello, a priest from Ilorin, is accused of killing and dismembering his lover, Yetunde Hafsoh Lawal, in February.

Two police witnesses brought the human parts they had found during their investigation to the court when the hearing started on Wednesday.

A keg of human blood, centre table stained with blood, a cutlass, an axe, a knife, a wooden box filled with black soap, lady slippers, two earrings, a Tecno phone, an SR iPhone, an itel A50 phone, and another iPhone, a bag filled with charms, including animal horns, and an exercise book detailing charms were among the items allowed as exhibits.

The deceased’s shattered beads and two allegedly their hands, among others found at a dump site, were also entered as exhibits.

Four of the 16 witnesses gave testimony, and all five suspects appeared in court.

According to Yusuf Dauda, a police witness in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the exhibits’ custodian, he registered the goods that Inspector Ayodele Azeez delivered.

In his account, he said “on February 16, 2025, I met with Inspector Ayodele Azeez, attached to anti-robbery unit coming with the defendants and exhibit in a case of criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide and illegal possession of human parts reported against the defendants.

”Items registered included; cutlass, centre table stained with blood, axe, knife, keg containing human blood, and a wooden box containing black soap and lady’s slippers, two earrings, one tecno phone, SR iphone, itel A50 phone and one iPhone, a bag containing charms and animal horns and one exercise book containing account of charm. I registered all in the register meant for the purpose.”

Chukwudi Maduka, the first defendant’s attorney, told the witness during cross-examination that he was not present at the scene of the recovery and was therefore unable to provide a definitive statement because he did not know the location.

Inspector Mohammed of the state CID further stated in his statement that he only presented human parts as exhibits and preserved those seized at the dumpsite at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) and in the home of the prime suspect, Abdul Rahman.

While crying in court, the deceased’s father, Ibrahim Lawal, a teacher and inhabitant of Oju Ekun, Ilorin, described events that led to the identification of her daughter’s murderer.

He said “On 2/2/2025, my daughter told me that her friend, Islamiyah, that recently gave birth, planned to do naming ceremony. On 9/2/2025 she went to her friend, Falilat Abdul Hafiz, to prepare for the naming ceremony with “lali” hand design. Her sisters helped her with it.

“On 10/2/2025 she went to private school where she teaches and came back at about 1:00pm after taking permission to attend the naming. She went to the event. At 4:00p.m, her mother noticed she was no longer among those celebrating. She asked Falilat to know Hafsat’s whereabouts. Falilat told the deceased mother that she got a call to attend to a person. The deceased did not even eat her served food, saying that she would come back to eat.

”I called her line, it rang but she didn’t pick up. At about 7:00pm, we called her line again, it was switched off. I called all our relations, but they said she wasn’t with them. The night fell, but she didn’t return. We had thought that she was afraid to come home after staying late. We searched all through the night for her.

“In the morning, my own father told me that the matter was already getting out of hand. At about 12noon on 11/2/2025, I summoned my own brothers on the matter. It was around 3:00pm we got to police station at Oja Oba, Ilorin. There, we were advised to do tracking of the deceased’s call logs. We gave a go-ahead on the development. It was on 13/2/2025 that Police told us that efforts on the call logs had been achieved. Police assured that we would find our daughter and that work would commence evening of that day.

“On 14/2/2025, police officer Moses again called me that call log had led to an arrest since 13/2/2025. That AbdulRahman has been arrested. Rahman was asked to tell us what happened by himself at the police station. It was said that Rahman had confessed but he should say it by himself.

“Rahman said he had killed Hafsat. I was down, I slumped. (Crying). We asked for the corpse for burial. That was when Rahman said that the matter is beyond that, revealing (unimaginably) that he has butchered my daughter.

“I cried with pain and anguish. Then, police detective took Rahman to his house, while we waited at the ‘C’ Division’s DPO’s office. They came back with the exhibits. I could identify all the items brought back from his house. Such are parts of my daughter’s hands. And Rahman even said that my daughter’s blood was contained in the keg.

“I thought it was all joke until I saw Hafsat hands because I was there when she was doing “lali” in preparation for the naming. Also, I identified her slippers and beads and her two phones (Android tecno and small itel),” the deceased’s father stated.

Later, the hands of the deceased (Hafsat) were removed for her father to identify, and he verified that they belonged to his daughter.

Falilat Abdul Hafiz, a student who lives in Oju Ekun and is Hafsat’s best friend, also gave testimony in court.

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