The Murder of Oluwabamise Ayanwola

A journey on a Lagos BRT bus

Oluwabamise Ayanwola, commonly called Bamise, was a 22-year-old fashion designer. On February 26, 2022, she boarded a Lagos Bus Rapid Transit vehicle in the Ajah area. Andrew Nice Ominikoron was driving the bus.

The prosecution later relied heavily on the circumstances of that journey. Reporting from the trial described Bamise communicating her concern to another person while she was on the bus. She did not return home, and her disappearance quickly triggered a search and public concern about passenger safety on Lagos's government-regulated BRT system.

Her body is found and the driver is arrested

Bamise's body was discovered days after she went missing. TheCable's contemporaneous reporting records that she was found around Carter Bridge in Lagos Island after the search for her. Ominikoron was subsequently arrested after leaving Lagos.

At the beginning of the prosecution, allegations extended beyond Bamise's death. Lagos State charged Ominikoron with offences including murder, rape, sexual assault and conspiracy, and other women testified about separate encounters with him. Those allegations and separate counts are not collapsed into the murder conviction: each charge had to be decided on its own evidence.

A long trial

The case proceeded before Justice Sherifat Sonaike of the Lagos State High Court at Tafawa Balewa Square. The prosecution called nine witnesses. Among them were law-enforcement personnel, BRT-related witnesses and medical experts, including a pathologist who testified about the cause of Bamise's death.

The defence disputed the prosecution's circumstantial case. During final submissions, defence counsel argued that no witness directly proved that Ominikoron caused Bamise's death and challenged reliance on the victim's recorded communication. The court did not accept those arguments as creating reasonable doubt on the murder count.

The May 2, 2025 judgment

On May 2, 2025, Justice Sonaike convicted Andrew Ominikoron of murdering Oluwabamise Ayanwola. The Lagos State Government's official account states that the court found the prosecution had proved the murder case beyond reasonable doubt. Independent Nigerian reporting from TheCable, The Guardian and Punch reported the same verdict.

The judge relied on circumstantial evidence including Ominikoron's position as the last person shown to have been with Bamise, as well as the evidentiary record surrounding her journey and death. The Guardian reported that the court concluded his actions and subsequent conduct supported the finding that he caused her death.

Different verdicts on different counts

The judgment did not simply convict Ominikoron of every allegation. He was discharged and acquitted on the conspiracy count. The court also did not find the prosecution had proved rape of Bamise beyond reasonable doubt; instead, reporting on the judgment states that an attempted-rape count relating to her was proved.

Separately, Ominikoron was convicted of rape involving another woman and received life imprisonment for that offence, and he was convicted of sexual assault involving a further complainant. Keeping those outcomes separate matters: the murder conviction concerns Bamise, while the other convictions arose from distinct allegations and victims.

Sentence

For Bamise's murder, the Lagos State High Court sentenced Ominikoron to death by hanging. The sentence was imposed after the murder conviction and was widely reported on May 2 and May 3, 2025.

This archive records the sentence because it forms part of the legal outcome, not as spectacle. The important editorial point is the conviction and its procedural status. Nigeria's appellate process allows a defendant to challenge a High Court judgment, and Ominikoron's lawyer said immediately after sentencing that his client would appeal.

Appeal status

Crime by Region reviewed recent reporting for a later appellate decision and did not locate a reliable source establishing that a Court of Appeal or Supreme Court judgment had reversed, varied or finally affirmed Ominikoron's murder conviction as of August 30, 2026. That absence is not proof that no filing exists; it is why this page uses the narrower label Solved / Adjudicated at trial rather than claiming that every appellate avenue has been exhausted.

If a later appellate decision changes the legal status, the case file should be updated. Until then, the verified public outcome is the May 2025 murder conviction and death sentence entered by the Lagos State High Court.

Why the case mattered beyond the courtroom

Bamise's disappearance became a national discussion about safety in public transportation and the obligations of operators entrusted with passengers. The fact that she disappeared after boarding a regulated mass-transit vehicle intensified public scrutiny of safeguards, tracking, driver oversight and emergency response.

That wider policy debate does not change the evidentiary burden in a murder trial. For this archive, the case is anchored in the specific facts established by the court and the legal distinctions among conviction, acquittal, attempted offence and separate sexual-offence findings.

Timeline

Current status

The murder of Oluwabamise Ayanwola is classified Solved / Adjudicated at trial. Andrew Nice Ominikoron was convicted of murder by the Lagos State High Court on May 2, 2025 and sentenced to death. A defence appeal was announced, but this review did not locate a reported appellate judgment changing the conviction by August 30, 2026.

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