Man to Die by Hanging in Ekiti

Gbenga Sodeinde In Ado Ekiti

A High Court in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, has sentenced one Mr. Ismaila Mohammed Ojo to death by hanging for murder.

 The first prosecutor witness, Inspector Arowosola Tunde, had told the court that one Mrs. Agnes Adu rushed to the police station with the complaint that her husband had been killed at Odo-Uro in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state.

According to the prosecution witness, the complainant, Adu, accused one  Ismaila Mohammed Ojo of physically engaging her late husband in a tussle over a motorcycle during which the defendant was said to have strangulated the deceased.

The second prosecution witness, Inspector Lasis Bashiru, said: “The convict confessed to the crime that on May 13, 2018, when he was taking his bath, the deceased came to carry a motorcycle which he parked in front of his house.”

    Bashiru also said the defendant added that after bathing, he went to the house of the deceased, Kareem Adu, and met him where he was sleeping. The defendant then jerked the deceased with his cloth on his neck and the deceased fell unconscious.

 The defendant, however, claimed that he neither intended to cause the victim’s death as the two of them were merely fighting and that neither of them used any weapon or hard object while fighting.

 However, the trial Judge, Hon. Justice Olusegun Israel Ogunyemi, said having carefully considered and weighed the evidence adduced before the court by the prosecution witnesses and that of the defendant himself, he found him guilty of murder.

The Judge, having been found  the accused guilty of one-count charge of murder  punishable under Section 319 of the Criminal Code Law Cap C16 Law of Ekiti State 2012, sentenced him to death by hanging.

    According to the Judge, “It is my finding that the defendant caused the death of the deceased by holding and pressing his neck (and throat).

  “On the whole, I find the defendant guilty as charged. The defendant is hereby sentenced to be hanged on the neck until you die.”