Man to die by hanging for killing neighbour in Ondo

Man to die by hanging for killing neighbour in Ondo

Abayomi Joseph was sentenced to death by an Ondo State High Court in Akure, the state capital, for the murder of his neighbour.

Joseph was condemned after being found guilty of cutting to death his neighbor, Thomas Oluwole, with a machete in 2021 in Akure’s Ijoka district, following an allegation of well water poisoning leveled against the deceased’s daughter by the prisoner.

During the heated altercation, Joseph is reported to have assaulted the 63-year-old bricklayer with a machete and chopped at his neck and other portions of his body, killing him. Later, he was arrested by police and charged in court.

He was also arraigned in court on one count of murder, based on information filed by an Assistant Chief Legal Officer from the Ondo State Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Omotola Ologun.

During the proceedings, the convict was said to have claimed to be insane while committing the crime.

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After a series of arguments from both counsel from the prosecution and defence, the court found Joseph guilty.

While delivering the judgment, the trial judge, Justice O.S. Kuteyi, stated that since the defendant had deliberately attacked the deceased by hitting him with wood on his head and cutting his head with a cutlass, he could not be excused from the death he caused to the man by his actions.

While holding that the prosecution had proved the case of murder against the accused person beyond reasonable doubt, Justice Kuteyi sentenced him to death by hanging.

The court held, “His feeble attempt to raise insanity or insane delusion was only a ploy to cover the face of the court from seeing the truth of the killing of the deceased on the fateful morning of March 17, 2021.

“The evidence of the defendant that he ran to a mountaintop and saw a pastor who advised him to report his fears to the chairman of the street is a failed ploy to rely on insane delusion.”

Man to die by hanging for killing neighbour in Ondo