An Abeokuta High Court in Ogun State has sentenced a 24-year-old man, Monday Abbah, to death by hanging for killing his colleague. Raphael Osugbe.
The convict, who pleaded not guilty to the charge against him, was convicted on a one count charge of murder.
Justice O. O. Stanley in her judgment on Friday found Abbah culpable of the charge of murder, saying the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubts.
She convicted Abbah, saying that the evidence presented by the prosecution was tenable and therefore sentenced him to death by hanging.
“I hereby sentence you Monday Abbah to death by hanging until you are dead.May God have mercy on you” Stanley ruled.
According to her, his action does not establish self defence.
She held that no circumstance justified his action of stabbing his victim with a knife “as it was a physical fight and the deceased was not armed with any dangerous weapon during the fight.
“It is very unfortunate that anger caused this.
“I think we have all learnt from this.”
The prosecution had told the court that the convict committed the offence on February 13, 2017 at Lexis Plastic Company along Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.
The prosecution said both the defendant and the deceased were staff of Lexis Plastic Company, while the convict worked as a labourer, the deceased, Osugbe, was a truck driver.
“On February 13, 2017, the company’s truck, which was driven by Mr. Raphael Osugbe (deceased), wanted to offload goods.
“While he was reversing, the truck mounted on some empty containers, which was inside a sack that the defendant was arranging.
“The defendant took one of the empty containers and threw it at Osugbe (deceased), who angrily came down from his truck, held on to the defendant and also slapped him, which led to a physical fight.
“In the process, Abbah. who was holding on to a knife he uses to remove nylon from the plastic container, stabbed Osugbe in his neck and blood started gushing out.
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“The deceased was immediately rushed to the hospital, but unfortunately died on the way due to shortage of blood.”
The prosecution said that the offence contravened the provisions of section 316 and 319 of the Criminal Code, laws of Ogun State, 2006.
