Justice Abiru of an Ikeja High Court in Lagos sentenced Mr Akinola, a bus driver to death for killing his wife, Funmilayo Awosika, a petty trader.According to the prosecutor, A.A. Sanusi, Mr Akinola murdered his wife on February 4, 2006 when he stabbed her with a broken beer bottle after an argument at the Oshodi Motor Park, Lagos.Mr Abiru declared that he had found Mr Akinola guilty of murder, “because the prosecution proved his case beyond reasonable doubts”.
Making it stick
He said that for a murder charge to hold, the prosecution must prove that the deceased died as a result of the action of the accused person, and that such action must have been committed with the intention of causing bodily harm to the victim.
Mr Abiru said the accused, in his confessional statement to the police which he later retracted during trial, admitted to stabbing his wife with a broken bottle.
“In the confessional statement, he told the police that he was married to the deceased, a petty trader, for seven years and that the marriage was blessed with three children,” Mr Abiru said. “He told the police that on that day, his wife came to meet him where he was drinking and asked him whether he was still alive. He claimed the woman tried to poison him in April 2005 and that he fell ill after eating her food.”
The judge said the accused also told the police that it took him almost a year to recover from the strange ailment and that his wife abandoned him during this period.
Admitted evidence
Mr Abiru said Mr Akinola’s statement, which was admitted by the court, implicated him in the murder.He added that the accused’s attempt to cook up a story that his wife fell into a gutter was not consistent with the facts.
“There was no way the police could have known these facts about him if he had not made the statement. He was present at the crime scene and had every opportunity to commit the crime,” Mr Abiru said.The photographs tendered before the court, the judge said, made it clear that the deceased was stabbed on the neck and other parts of her body with a bottle.Criminal intent ; Mr Abiru said the action of the accused was intentional, and not done in self-defence because the victim was reportedly stabbed in various places.
“I find the accused guilty of murder which is contrary to Section 319 (1) of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State 2003 and punishable by death. I hereby sentence Akinola to death for the murder of Funmilayo Awosika,” Mr Abiru pronounced.
The convict’s counsel, O. Rotimi, appealed to the judge to temper justice with mercy because of the children.
Mr Abiru, however, maintained that the law stated clearly that the punishment for murder is death.
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KINGJHOE
PoliticxGuru
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