Abayomi Joseph was sentenced to death by an Ondo State High Court in Akure, the state capital, for the murder of his neighbour.
Joseph was sentenced after he was found guilty of hacking to death one Thomas Oluwole, who was his neighbour, with a machete, in 2021, at the Ijoka area of Akure, following an allegation of well water poisoning levelled against the deceased’s daughter by the convict.
During the heated argument, Joseph was said to have attacked the 63-year-old bricklayer with a machete and hacked at his neck and other parts of his body with the machete which led to his death. He was later arrested by the police and charged to court.
He was also arraigned before the court on one count charge of murder, through information filed before the court by an Assistant Chief Legal Officer, Mrs Omotola Ologun, from the Ondo State Ministry of Justice.
During the proceedings, the convict was said to have claimed to be insane while committing the crime.
After a series of arguments from both counsel from the prosecution and defence, the court found Joseph guilty.
While delivering the judgement, the trial judge, Justice O.S Kuteyi, stated that since the defendant had deliberately attacked the deceased by hitting him with wood on his head and cutting his head with a cutlass, he could not be excused from the death he caused to the man by his actions.
While holding that the prosecution had proved the case of murder against the accused person beyond reasonable doubt, Justice Kuteyi sentenced him to death by hanging.
The court held, “His feeble attempt to raise insanity or insane delusion was only a ploy to cover the face of the court from seeing the truth of the killing of the deceased on the fateful morning of March 17, 2021.
“The evidence of the defendant that he ran to a mountain top and saw a pastor who advised him to report his fears to the chairman of the street is a failed ploy to rely on insane delusion.”