Man to die in Ondo for stabbing youth leader to death

BY ADETOKUNBO ABIOLA

An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure has sentenced a 32-year-old man, Toba Adeyemi, to 14 years’ imprisonment for conspiracy and death by hanging for the murder of a youth leader, Michael Alademomi, popularly known as “Eko.”

Delivering judgement, Justice Yemi Fasanmi held that the prosecution had successfully proven its case beyond reasonable doubt against Adeyemi, who was arraigned in October 2021 on charge No. AK/58C/2021.

“The evidence before this court clearly shows that the defendant committed the offence of murder punishable with death.

“The prosecution has successfully discharged the burden of proof placed upon it by law,” the judge ruled.

Earlier, the prosecution counsel, D.G. Kayode, told the court that Adeyemi and others at large committed the offence on May 1, 2021, at No. 50B, Fadeyi Street, Oshinle, Akure, within the court’s jurisdiction, at about 5 p.m. on the said date.

The convict and his accomplices allegedly conspired to kill Alademomi, by beating and stabbing him in the neck, said the prosecutor, who called four witnesses and tendered the extra-judicial statement of the defendant as evidence.

The defendant, who testified as a sole witness, denied involvement in the crime, which contravened Sections 316 and 319 of the Criminal Code, Cap 37, Vol. 1, Laws of Ondo State of Nigeria, 2006.

According to one of the prosecution witnesses, the defendant arrived at the deceased’s residence with about eight men on motorcycles and allegedly pointed at Alademomi before he was attacked.

The deceased ran into the house, shouting for help and bleeding profusely after he was stabbed in the neck, while the attackers fled the scene immediately, with the victim pronounced dead about three hours later in the hospital from excessive loss of blood.

The counsel to the defendant, Fortune Falade, argued that there was no direct evidence linking Adeyemi to the stabbing of the deceased, but Justice Fasanmi held that the oral and documentary evidence before the court showed that the defendant deliberately went to the deceased’s residence with armed supporters to intimidate and assault him over an earlier disagreement.

The judge said the defendant mobilised the group in a show of strength and toughness against the deceased, adding that the injuries inflicted during the attack led to Alademomi’s death, with the testimonies of prosecution witnesses corroborating one another and establishing that the deceased sustained fatal injuries to the neck during the assault.