By Tapre Timine, Bayelsa
A Bayelsa State High Court sitting in Yenagoa has sentenced four men to death for the gruesome murder of a commercial taxi driver, Mr Olarenwaju Ajayi, during a supposed trip to Onne, Rivers State.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, July 10, 2025, at Court 11 in Onopa, the presiding judge, Hon Justice Patience Ama Zuofa Diri, found the defendants Sunday Imoh Essien, Opena Akpabio, Odogha Ebi, and Clifford Michael guilty of conspiracy, murder, and armed robbery in suit number YHC/21C/2021.
According to court findings, the convicts had chartered Mr Ajayi who operated a commercial taxi service between Yenagoa and Port Harcourt under the pretense of attending a naval event in Onne, Rivers State.
However, the journey which commenced from Agudama-Epie in Yenagoa, turned fatal at Okogbe in Rivers State, where the first defendant, Sunday Imoh, asked the driver to stop on the pretext of needing to relieve himself. Seizing the opportunity, the gang launched a brutal attack: they strangled Mr Ajayi with a marine rope and stabbed him to death.
After the murder, the assailants dumped the body and fled with the victim’s vehicle to Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, where they sold it for N450,000.
Reacting to the verdict, the Bayelsa State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Biriyai Dambo, SAN, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to justice.
Dambo said the ruling showed the state’s zero-tolerance stance on violent crimes and assures citizens that perpetrators will face the full weight of the law.