Man sentenced to death by hanging for murder in Ekiti

Mr. Ismaila Ojo was found guilty of strangling Kareem Adu to death over a motorcycle and was given a death by hanging sentence by the Ado Ekiti Division of the Ekiti State High Court.

On May 13, 2018, Ojo was accused of murdering a person and was later found guilty.

In the ruling, Justice Olusegun Ogunyemi stated, “It is my determination that the defendant caused the death of the deceased by holding and crushing his neck and throat. I have carefully reviewed and balanced the facts presented before the court.

“On the whole, I find the defendant guilty as charged. You (the defendant) are hereby sentenced to be hanged on the neck until you die,” the judge pronounced.

Inspector Tunde Arowosola, the police prosecutor, had earlier informed the court that Mrs. Agnes Adu had complained to the station that Ismaila Ojo had slain her husband at Odo-Uro as a result of a dispute over ownership and physical altercation involving a Hajue motorcycle.

According to Arowosola, the woman claimed that the defendant (Ojo) had strangled the victim to death.

Also, a police operative, Inspector Lasis Bashiru, who testified before the court, said, “The defendant confessed to the crime that on May 13, 2018, when he was taking his bath inside a bathroom, Adu (the deceased) came to take a motorcycle which he parked in front of his house”.

Bashiru added that “the defendant said that after finishing his bath, he went to Adu’s house and met him sleeping.

“The defendant, however, claimed that he neither intended nor caused Adu’s death as the two of them merely fought while none of them carried or used any weapon or hard object during the fight”, he had told the court.