By Abimbola Ogunnaike
An Abeokuta High Court presided by Justice O.O Stanley has sentenced a 24-year-old man, Monday Abbah, to death by hanging for killing his colleague, Mr Rapheal Osugbe.
Abbah, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, was convicted on a one-count charge of murder.
Delivering her judgment on Friday, 16 February, 2024, Stanley found Abbah culpable of the charge of murder, saying that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
She convicted Abbah, saying that the evidence presented by the prosecution was tenable and, therefore, sentenced Abbah to death by hanging.
“I hereby sentence you Monday Abbah to death by hanging until you are dead. May God have mercy on you” she said, adding that his action does not establish a self-defence.
The judge 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 the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.
The prosecution said both the defendant and the deceased were the staff of the Lexis Plastic Company while the convict worked as a labourer; the dead, Osugbe, was a truck driver.
“On Feb. 13, 2017, the company’s truck, which was driven by Mr Rapheal Osugbe (deceased), wanted to offload goods; while he was reversing, the truck mounted on some empty containers which were 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 onto 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.
“The deceased was immediately rushed to the hospital but unfortunately died on the way due to shortage of blood.” said the prosecution.
The prosecution said that the offence contravened the provisions of sections 316 and 319 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ogun 2006.
Source: NAN
