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Court sentences herdsman to death for murder

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Justice Adekunle Adeleye of the Ekiti State High Court on Thursday sentenced a 25-year-old herdsman, Muhammadu Haruna, to death by hanging for matcheting his colleague to death.

In his ruling on the murder charge brought against the convict, the judge said “there are no surrounding circumstances that destroyed the cogency of the circumstantial evidence led against the accused.

“He was 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 prosecution counsel, Shirley Atanel, had during the trial told the court that Haruna committed the offence on February 12, 2018, at the Uro River in Iyin Ekiti, Irepodun/Ifelodun local government area of the state.

Atanel said the convict murdered one Muhammadu Usman contrary to Section 516 of the Criminal Code, CAP C16, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.

READ ALSO: Court sentences herdsman to one-year imprisonment for open grazing in Benue

The prosecution called four witnesses including the Investigative Police Officer (IPO) and tendered exhibits including the convict’s confessional statements, photographs of the deceased and a blood-stained matchet to prove its case.

One of the witnesses told the court that while he was on his motorcycle, he saw two herdsmen approaching the river with their herds of cattle.

The witness said he later saw Haruna returning a blood-stained matchet into its sheath and the other herdsman lying face down in a pool of blood with a matchet cut on his neck.

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