An Ikeja High Court on Monday sentenced to death a 33-year-old man, Abiodun Allen, for killing his immediate younger brother, Wale, with a broken bottle.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Abiodun, who was first arraigned on Oct. 6, 2015, was convicted of killing Wale by stabbing him in the throat and stomach.
Justice Raliatu Adebiyi, while convicting Abiodun, said that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and all the necessary ingredients to secure a conviction for murder had been established.
The judge noted that the testimonies of the four prosecution witnesses (Mr Sunday Abogunrin who is a family friend of the convict and three police officers) corroborated the confessional statement of Abiodun to the police.
She noted that the convict during his testimony acted strangely and the defence never raised the defence of insanity.
The judge said that Abiodun might have been acting strangely to get a favourable sentence from the court.
Convicting Abiodun, the judge said: “Abiodun Allen is hereby found guilty of the murder of his brother Wale Allen, I so hold.”
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Following his conviction, Allen’s defence counsel, Mrs Y. A Ajayi told the court that she was not going to give an allocutus (plea for mercy) on the defendant’s behalf.
Sentencing the convict, Justice Adebiyi noted that Section 221 gives a mandatory death sentence and does not give the court discretionary powers while meting out the sentence.
“Abiodun Allen having been found guilty of murder is hereby sentenced to death. May God the giver of life, have mercy on your soul,” she said.
Upon hearing the sentence, Abiodun remained expressionless as he left the dock to be led away by prison officials.
NAN reports that during the trial, Abogunrin (PW2) had testified before the court that Abiodun was notorious in the community for ingesting illegal substances, beating up people and randomly killing animals.
Abogunrin, who is also the landlord to the Allen family, said that in the early hours of the morning of the incident, he caught
Abiodun dragging the body of the deceased to the bush behind their residence to secretly bury it.
Abiodun, however, was the only witness to testify in his defence.
In his testimony, the convict claimed he was a student and that the aunt whom he had been living with for over 20-years claimed he had killed her son and that following her claims, he was apprehended by some youths in the community.
He also denied that the deceased was his brother and claimed that his mother was Chinese.
The prosecution, led by Mrs O. R Ahmed-Muili, said that the convict committed the offence at 11p.m. on Feb. 20, 2013 at Imudo Village, Oto Awori, Lagos following years of toxic sibling rivalry between the pair.
According to the confessional statement of the convict, he was asleep in the living room when he suddenly saw Wale, his younger brother, standing with a torch light in his hand.
“He alleged Wale woke him up and started saying that he was going to kill him if he was not careful.
“He got up angrily and took up a broken bottle which he kept beside him and stabbed him in the throat.
“While Wale lay dying, the convict allegedly told Wale that he must die before him because he has been threatening him for over two years,” he said. (NAN)