Sunday Clement, a 24-year-old labourer, has told an Akure Chief Magistrate Court in Akure, the Ondo state capital, why he decapitated a farmer, Taye Alatoye.
Clement was apprehended by men from the Ondo State Police Command after reportedly killing the victim on his way to the farm at Baba Odun Camp, Ofosu in the state’s Odigbo Local Government Area.
He was charged with murdering the 30-year-old farmer.
According to police prosecutor Mary Adebayo, the defendant committed the crime on September 4, 2023, around 2:30 p.m., in Baba Odun Camp, Ofosu in the state’s Odigbo Local Government Area.
Adebayo told the court that the defendant killed one Taye Alatoye, by macheting him with a cutlass on his neck which led to his death.
The offence, according to him, contravenes Sections 316 and 319 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap 37 Vol. II Law of Ondo State, 2006.
Adebayo, while presenting a remand application, urged the court to remand the defendant at the Olokuta Correctional Centre pending the outcome of advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The defendant, who pleaded for forgiveness, told the court that he was on his way to the farm to work after taking a hard drug, Crystal methamphetamine also known as ‘ice’ and marijuana.
Narrating to court what came over him, the defendant said ” We were both going, and we greeted each other on the road part.”
“The spirit just came over me to cut off Taye’s head. I can’t actually say what led to it. I think it was the ‘Ice’ I took in the hot sun,” he explained.
“The spirit just told me to go backward and I did. All my eyes were blocked and I heard another voice that instructed me to cut the man with the cutlass in my hand, which I did.
“Immediately I did it, I came back to my senses and started crying before I was eventually apprehended by the police.
Chief Magistrate Folasade Aduroja, did not take Clement’s plea for want of jurisdiction, ordered his remand in Olokuta Correctional Centre.
Granting the prosecutor’s request, the Chief Magistrate Aduroja, also directed that the case file be duplicated and sent to the DPP for advice.
Aduroja thereafter adjourned the case till November 28, 2023.