31-year-old man to die by hanging for murder

For being found guilty of killing his neighbour with a cutlass, a Lagos High Court, Igbosere sentenced a 31-year-old man, Ibrahim Tijani to death by hanging.

The trial judge, Justice Adedayo Akintoye found him guilty of the one count charge of murder brought against him by the Lagos State government.

The convict was said to have macheted his neighbour over complaint of Generator fume from his power generating set.

The convict who resided in an uncompleted building with the deceased, at Okun in Ajah area of Lagos, had pleaded not guilty to the charge when he was arraigned on January 21, 2016.

The prosecution counsel, the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem (SAN) had told the court that the convict unlawfully killed one 57-year old man, Bashorun Okanla‎wan with machete around 2:30am on February 8, 2015.

He said his offence contravened Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

During trial, the deceased 16-year old teenage son, Adeola Okanlawon in his testimony had told the court that his father was killed with a machete after complaining of smoke coming from a neighbour’s electricity generator.

He said that their neighbour, one Ibrahim Tijani, killed his father with a cutlass in a disagreement over generator smoke.

The witness further told court that his late father had called the defendant to complain about the smoke that was coming out of his power generating set into his room.

He said, “My father had asked the defendant to change the position of the generator set to stop the smoke from entering our room, but he refused to do so. Disagreement between my father and our neighbour over smoke coming out from the neighbour’s generator set caused the death of my father. My father had to push the generating set away from its former position, but did not throw it away.

“The defendant fought with my father, which led to his death. When the defendant was cutting my father with cutlass, I pleaded with him not to kill my father, but he refused to listen to me,” Adeola recounted in court.

Also, the Investigating Police Officer, David Abu had told the court that at about 2:13am on the day of the incident, the convict came to the police station to report a case of assault.

He said after 10 minutes, the defendant made the report; the lifeless body of the deceased was brought to the station on a tricycle.

He said, “It was discovered that the deceased complained to the defendant to adjust his power generating set because of the smoke entering his room.

“When the defendant did not comply, the deceased complained to one ‘Alfa’ (a chief) who owned a block industry near them. It was on their way from the Alfa’s place that the defendant picked a cutlass, went after the deceased and cut his left hand, leg and waist.

“When the deceased was no longer moving, the defendant took a bottle and stabbed himself on the left arm, ran to the police station to make a report of assault,” Mr. Abu said.

However, in his defence, Tijani denied that he did not kill the deceased but had fought with the deceased.