Abdulrahman Bello, the prime suspect in the murder of Hafsoh Lawal, a final-year student at the Kwara State College of Education, has confessed to dismembering her body after her death.

Testifying before Justice Hannah Ajayi at the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin on Wednesday, Bello claimed he acted alone in mutilating the victim's remains.

He told the court that he was under the influence of alcohol when he used a knife and a cutlass—both recovered from his two-room apartment in the Olunlade area by police—to cut Hafsoh into parts.

Bello confessed that he did it by himself.

"I was drunk, and I panicked,” he said.

Despite the gruesome nature of the act, Bello denied killing the 20-something-year-old student.

He claimed that Hafsoh died from an asthma attack during sexual intercourse.

“I went out to get an inhaler for her when I noticed that she was gasping because she had asthma. By the time I came back into the room, she had died. So, I left my place to take alcohol and returned to cut the body parts into pieces,” he told the court.

However, during cross-examination by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the prime suspect admitted that he neither alerted any neighbours nor reported the incident to the police.

He also failed to take the deceased’s body to the hospital, explaining that he was afraid of her father.

The DPP confronted the suspect with the discovery that the deceased’s drained blood and body parts, found at his residence, had not decomposed even after five days due to being preserved in alcohol.

The suspect, however, denied allegations that he kept the blood and severed hand for ritual purposes or any financial gain.

Expressing remorse, the suspect said he regretted his actions and felt deep sadness. He insisted he did not kill the deceased, stating that he loved her.

“I can’t ever meet her kind again. She cared about my life. I even told the police that she made me take the 2024 NABTEB examination and encouraged me to purchase the JAMB form for the just-concluded exam. She was exceptional in my life,” he said.

He further claimed that police torture forced him to make a confession in a recorded video presented in court, where he allegedly admitted to poisoning the deceased’s food and strangling her.

All four co-defendants testified that they did not know about the killing.

Meanwhile, the defence counsels jointly requested seven days to file their written addresses. The prosecution asked for 10 days to file its response after receiving the defence submissions.

Justice Hannah Ajayi granted the requests and adjourned the case to July 2, 2025, for the final adoption of written addresses.