[size=14pt]Driver sentenced to death for killing wife[/size]

Ade Adesomoju


A Lagos High Court, sitting in Ikeja, on Monday sentenced a bus driver, Mr. Tunde Akinola, to death for killing his wife, Mrs Funmilayo Awosika, in 2006.



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The trial judge, Justice Habeeb Abiru, delivering his judgment held that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt and found the accused guilty of murder.

He said for a murder charge to hold, the prosecution must prove that the deceased died from the action of the accused person, saying such an action must be intentional with the aim of causing bodily harm to the victim.

He added that in a matter where an offence of murder had been proved against a defendant, the law did not give room for discretion by the judge.

He said the penalty of murder was death sentence.

Akinola, an indigene of Akure, Ondo State, according to the prosecutor, Mr A.A. Sanusi killed his wife on February 4, 2006 by stabbing her with a piece of broken bottle after they had an argument at Oshodi Motor Park in Lagos.

According to him, the accused in his confessional statement to the police, which he later denied during trial, had admitted to stabbing the deceased with a broken bottle.

Justice Abiru said, "In the confessional statement, he had told the police he was married to the deceased, who was a petty trader for seven years and that the marriage was blessed with three children.

"He told the police that on that day, his wife came to meet him where he was drinking and asked him whether he was still alive.

"He claimed the woman had tried to poison him in April, 2005 and that he fell ill after eating her food."

The judge said the accused person further told the police it took him almost a year to recover from the strange ailment and that the wife abandoned him during this period.

"There was no way the police could have known these facts about him if he had not made the statement. He was present at the crime scene and had every opportunity to commit the crime," the judge held.

He added that from the photographs, which were tendered before the court by the prosecution, it was clear the deceased was stabbed on the neck and other parts of her body with a bottle.

The judge said the action of the accused person was not in self-defence, adding that it was intentional because the victim was reportedly stabbed in various places.

He said, "I find the accused guilty of murder contrary to Section 319 (1) of the Criminal Code Law Cap C. Vol.2, Laws of Lagos State 2003 and the punishment for murder is death.