Herdsman Sentenced To Death For Killing Fellow Herder In Ekiti

An Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti Division, Thursday, sentenced a 25-year-old herdsman, Mohamodu Haruna, to death by hanging for the crime of killing a fellow herder, Mohamadu Usman.

During trial, the prosecutor, Shirley Atanel revaelaed that the convict committed the crime on or before February 12, 2018, at Odo Uro, Iyin Ekiti in the Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Ekiti State contrary to Section 516 of the Criminal Code, Cap C16, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.

READ ALSO: Ogun State Police Arrest Two Men For Swindling a Man of N148,000

The prosecutor called four witnesses, including the Investigating Police Officer who 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.”

Justice Adekunle Adeleye found the convict guilty of murder.

He said, “There are no surrounding circumstances that destroy the cogency of the circumstantial evidence against the accused.

“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.”

The counsel for the defendant, Yinka Opaleke, did not call any witness in the course of the trial.