An Ilorin High Court of Justice sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, has sentenced an Ilorin cleric, AbdulRahman Mohammed Bello to death by hanging for killing his girlfriend, Hafsoh Yetunde Lawal.

AbdulRahman Bello was arrested in February for killing his girlfriend, a final year student at Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin, and dismembering her body.

He was found guilty of murder of the student following his confessional statement and overwhelming evidences before the court.

HE had pleaded clemency when the court allowed him to talk before the judgment was pronounced.

Delivering judgment on Thursday after four months of trial, Justice Hannah Ajayi found Bello guilty of killing the victim, who was reportedly his Facebook lover.

The court, however, discharged and acquitted four co-defendants: Ahmed Abdulwasiu (41), Suleiman Muyideen (28), Jamiu Uthman (29), and Abdulrahmon Jamiu (31), who were initially arraigned alongside Bello.

Bello had confessed at the beginning of the trial to killing Lawal for money rituals, claiming he needed human hands for the purpose.

According to testimonies, the incident occurred on February 13, 2025.

Lawal had gone to attend a friend’s naming ceremony when Bello invited her to his residence around the Offa garage area of Ilorin.

During the trial, Bello gave conflicting accounts of the events, initially saying he choked her to death after multiple rounds of sex before dismembering her body.

At another point, he claimed she died of an asthma attack and that he dismembered the body out of fear.