An Ondo State High Court in the state capital of Akure sentenced Abayomi Joseph to death for the murder of his neighbour.
After being found guilty of murdering his neighbour Thomas Oluwole in 2021 in Akure’s Ijoka district with a machete, Joseph was sentenced to death. The prisoner had accused the deceased’s daughter of being poisoned by well water.
Joseph is accused of killing the sixty-three-year-old bricklayer by attacking him with a machete during the heated argument and chopping at his neck and other parts of his body. He was later detained by the police and faced legal charges.
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Based on information provided by Mrs. Omotola Ologun, an Assistant Chief Legal Officer of the Ondo State Ministry of Justice, he was further charged with one count of murder at his arraignment.
It was reported throughout the trial that the convicted party claimed to have been mad at the time of the crime.
Following a series of arguments from the prosecution and defence attorneys, Joseph was declared guilty by the court.
The trial judge, Justice O.S. Kuteyi, declared during the delivery of the verdict that the defendant could not be absolved of the death he caused to the victim by his conduct since he had intentionally attacked him by striking him on the head with wood and slashing his head with a cutlass.
Judge Kuteyi sentenced the accused to death by hanging, ruling that the prosecution had proven the case of murder against him beyond a reasonable doubt.
The court ruled that the defendant’s weak attempt to claim insanity or delusional delusions was merely a ruse to prevent the court from learning the truth about the deceased’s murder on the tragic morning of March 17, 2021.
“The defendant’s testimony that he saw a pastor while running to a mountaintop and that pastor advised him to report his fears to the chairman of the street is an attempt to rely on irrational delusion that has failed.”
