Justice Ibrahim Yusuf of the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin on Tuesday remanded eight persons charged with the rape and murder of a 24-year-old University of Ilorin student, Olajide Blessing (Omowumi.)

The defendants, who were brought to court last week Wednesday, could not be arraigned because of the inability of three of them to produce legal representation.

The defendants are Abdulazeez Ismail, Ajala Oluwatimileyin (aka Jacklord), Oyeyemi Omogbolahan, Abdulkarim Shuaib (aka Easy), Kareem Rasheed (Rashworld), Abdullateef Abdulrahman, Daud Adebayo (aka Bashman) and Akande Taiye Oladoja.

The accused persons are facing 11 counts bordering on murder, rape, armed robbery, illegal possession of firearms, among others.

Three of the defendants, Ismail, Oluwatimileyin and Omogbolahan, were alleged to have conspired among themselves, “to rob one Olajide Gloria Blessing Omowumi also known as ‘Wumi’ (now deceased) of her Samsung Galaxy A2 Core handset and carted away other items, including one black Acer Aspire laptop, one Samsung drive, one pink wireless mouse, one white handheld mini-sewing machine, one Infinix charger and one gold colour Wintouch tab, while armed with weapons, including a black wooden gun.”

The prosecution alleged that the five others aided and abetted the receipt of the stolen items.

Ismail, Rasheed and Shuaib were also accused of stealing N116,000 from the GTB account of the deceased.

All the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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The prosecution, led by the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Salman Jawondo, filed an application to call three witnesses.

Mr Sikiru Solagberu, counsel for Adebayo, who was charged with aiding and abetting and receiving stolen property, however, filed an application for bail, which was dismissed by the judge.

Justice Yusuf said, “Generally, bail is at the discretion of the court, but in this circumstance, the counsel failed to give satisfactory reasons to grant his request. I am not inclined to grant the request as the case in question borders on a capital offence.”

The case was adjourned till Wednesday (today) for hearing.

The judge said the trial would run everyday.