An Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti Division, on Thursday, sentenced a 25-year-old herdsman, Mohamodu Haruna, to death by hanging for killing a fellow herder, Mohamadu Usman.
Justice Adekunle Adeleye found the convict guilty of murder.
Justice Adeleye said, “There are no surrounding circumstances that destroy the cogency of the circumstantial evidence against the accused.
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“He is caught in the web of the last seen theory. In the result, I find the defendant guilty as charged. He is sentenced to death by hanging.”
During trial, the prosecutor, Shirley Atanel, had said, “The offence was committed on or about February 12, 2018, at Odo Uro, Iyin Ekiti in the Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government area of Ekiti State, when he murdered one Mohamodu Usman, contrary to Section 516 of the Criminal Code, Cap C16, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.”
The prosecutor had called four witnesses, including the Investigating Police Officer, and tendered exhibits, including the confessional statement of the defendant, photographs of the deceased’s butchered neck and a blood-stained machete.
An eyewitness, who testified during the trial, said he saw two herdsmen with their cows while he was on his motorcycle.
The witness said he later discovered that “one of them was returning a blood-stained machete into its sheath and the other one lay face down in a pool of his own blood with machete cuts on his neck.”
The counsel for the defendant, Yinka Opaleke, did not call any witness in the course of the trial. ,,
