Abayomi Joseph was sentenced to death by an Ondo State High Court in Akure, the state capital, for the murder of his neighbor.
Joseph was condemned after being found guilty of cutting to death his neighbor, Thomas Oluwole, with a machete in 2021 in Akure’s Ijoka district, following an allegation of well water poisoning leveled against the deceased’s daughter by the prisoner.
During the heated altercation, Joseph is reported to have assaulted the 63-year-old bricklayer with a machete and stabbed his neck and other portions of his body, killing him. He was later apprehended by police and charged in court.
He was also arraigned in court on a single count of murder, based on information filed by an Assistant Chief Legal Officer from the Ondo State Ministry of Justice, Mrs Omotola Ologun.
The convict was believed to have claimed to be mad when committing the crime during the procedures.
Following a series of arguments from both prosecution and defense lawyers, the court declared Joseph guilty
The trial judge, Justice O.S Kuteyi, noted during his decision that because the defendant willfully attacked the deceased by beating him on the head with wood and slashing his skull with a cutlass, he could not be absolved from the death caused by his conduct.
Justice Kuteyi sentenced the accused to death by hanging after ruling that the prosecution had proven the charge of murder beyond reasonable doubt.
“His feeble attempt to raise insanity or insane delusion was only a ploy to cover the court’s face from seeing the truth of the deceased’s killing on the fateful morning of March 17, 2021,” the court said.
“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.”